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Site tallies 10,202 local comments, mostly against data centers
American Sentiment, citing Prophecy Gov meeting records, said 90.5 percent of 10,202 public comments on data centers were opposed, with water use the most-cited concern.
- New headline Was: “America on Data Centers: 10k city council comments”
- Our desk filed its story
- americansentiment.com is now reporting this
A project published as American Sentiment on Nov. 1 counted 10,202 public comments on data centers from local government meetings and said 9,232 of them, or 90.5 percent, were opposed, with 718 in favor and 252 asking questions1.
The site said the comments came from meetings tracked with Prophecy Gov records covering more than 300,000 local council sessions1. It reported that 73 percent of meetings, totaling 658 sessions and 5,070 comments, had no one speaking in favor, and that at the 240 meetings where someone did, supporters were outnumbered 6 to 11.
Water use was listed as the most frequent concern, in 3,621 comments, or 36 percent, followed by quality of life (3,388 comments, 34 percent) and lack of transparency (3,291 comments, 33 percent)1. The site said 88 percent of comments raised more than one concern1.
On process, it said lack of transparency came up in 686 meetings (76 percent), company distrust in 629 (70 percent), and rushed review in 609 (68 percent)1. It also reported skepticism about promised community benefits, including limited benefits (1,438 comments), few jobs (1,246), and taxpayer subsidies (1,222)1.
The site said four-fifths of comments did not mention AI at all, with any AI mention in 2,046 comments, or 21 percent, below water, quality of life, and transparency1. Comments named Google 386 times, Amazon 342, Meta 315, and Microsoft 287, versus OpenAI or ChatGPT 151, xAI or Grok 128, and Anthropic or Claude 291.
Elon Musk was named in 96 comments, more than Sam Altman, Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Kevin O'Leary combined, according to the site1.
Opposition rates were similar in counties grouped by 2024 presidential vote, the site said: 92.4 percent opposed in heavily Democratic counties and 93.1 percent in heavily Republican ones, using a 15-point margin to define heavily partisan1. It said Republican-leaning counties raised community character more often and Democratic-leaning ones climate change and fairness to poorer areas more often1.
Rural commenters more often raised community character, farmland, and property rights, while urban and suburban commenters more often raised transparency, distrust, air pollution, and utility bills, the site said1. Among self-described roles, property owners and residents were 97 percent opposed; union workers, in 183 comments across 43 governments, were 79 percent in favor1.
Discussion of data centers in meetings was described as 21.8 times the first-quarter 2022 level by the third quarter of 2026, based on Prophecy Gov internal data1. The site itself cautioned that public comments do not always match broader public opinion1. How comments were sampled, coded, and filtered was not independently reviewed1.
