MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Back here in the U.S., Ohio has seen some of the fastest data center growth in the country and some of the fiercest backlash. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports on how the hot-button issue cuts across party lines.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Can you say, trick or treat?
ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: Halloween has come early in the Cincinnati suburb of Fairfield. Pint-sized pirates and princesses weave their way through booths set up by local businesses and churches and other groups.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: You get a prize, and you get a piece of candy.
HSU: At this booth, there's something for the grown-ups too.
LINDA MOODIE: Do you have any interest in signing a petition while you're here?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: What is it for?
MOODIE: To ban large-scale data centers in the state.
HSU: That's Linda Moodie with Conserve Ohio. The all-volunteer group has been working to stop the development of huge data centers - the kind used to power AI. They're behind ballot initiatives in 10 communities this fall, and they're still collecting signatures for a statewide ban they hope to get on the ballot in 2027. It's an effort many are happy to back.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MOODIE: Awesome. Are you a registered voter?
HSU: More than a decade ago, tech companies came to Ohio, drawn by the state's inexpensive and abundant land, its energy infrastructure and its generous tax breaks. Like many parents in this crowd, Kyler Osterberger is now worried about the impact the data center boom is having.
KYLER OSTERBERGER: Just, like, the resources, electricity, rising costs.
HSU: Others fear the pollution new power plants will bring. Linda Moodie is wary about data centers further enabling AI.
MOODIE: We don't necessarily trust that the government's going do the right thing.
HSU: Whoever gets elected?
MOODIE: Yeah. Absolutely.
HSU: Data centers have figured prominently in the tight race for a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio. Both candidates are calling for greater accountability, but neither has gone as far as to back a moratorium. The Democrat, former Senator Sherrod Brown, has cast his opponent, current Republican Senator Jon Husted, as the face of data centers. Back when Husted was lieutenant governor, he did champion investments in them. Now Brown's running ads featuring disgruntled Ohioans.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Even today Husted wants to build more data centers.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: No matter how much water they use.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Or how much they cost.
HSU: For his part, Husted has called Brown hypocritical, pointing to his past support for data centers. And Husted's has been pushing a bill in Washington aimed at getting data centers to pay for things like upgrades to the power grid.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JON HUSTED: The Ratepayer Protection Act rests on a principle every American understands - pay your own way.
HSU: But to Nick Owens, the problem goes far beyond who's footing the bill. Owens is one of the founders of that grassroots group, Conserve Ohio. I meet him in the village of Mount Orab, an hour east of Cincinnati. We drive through a neighborhood of beautiful homes on big, grassy lots.
NICK OWENS: This is the Ohio that people brag about. This is the Ohio people love.
HSU: At the end of a block, there's a huge field - part of 1,000 acres that have been sold to a data center developer.
There's corn right here, so this is farmland.
OWENS: Yeah. I mean, literally, we are feet from the data center property and where you will have the constant hum, noise, pollution, whatever - I mean, literally from these people's backyards, front yards. You know, people don't deserve to live this way.
HSU: He says, why not build data centers on old industrial sites instead?
OWENS: If we're going to have data centers, those are the prime places.
HSU: Owens is an attorney and a lifelong Republican, a former Trump delegate. He won't say how he's voting this fall. But he says the data center issue, along with $6 diesel, is dampening enthusiasm for Republicans. He didn't appreciate Trump's warning that communities that oppose data centers will lose out.
OWENS: When, you know, the president says, well, you'll just be poor and backwards, no. I want our regular way of life.
HSU: Construction at the site hasn't begun yet. It's not clear when it will. Owen says, because of nondisclosure agreements, people who live here know nothing. For now, all you hear is birds.
Andrea Hsu, NPR News in Mount Orab, Ohio.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OHIO! ")
THE BLACK KEYS: (Singing) Whoa-ooh, whoa-ooh, whoa-ooh, whoa-ooh, whoa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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