After the midterms, a bigger clash over data centers could be coming

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The Nov. 3 midterm results gave Democrats full control of Congress, setting the stage for what could be one of the most divided U.S. governments this decade, with Republicans in the White House. Tuesday’s results suggest that anger over data centers, the large facilities that house the computers powering AI, is becoming a political force.

11月3日的中期选举结果使民主党获得了国会的全面控制权，这为本十年中最分裂的美国政府之一奠定了基础，而白宫则由共和党人把持。周二的结果表明，针对数据中心（即容纳驱动人工智能计算机的大型设施）的愤怒正在成为一股政治力量。

With Democrats now in control of Congress, that could lead to new limits on where data centers can be built and how much say local communities have. Data centers became a ballot-box issue in various states. An NBC exit poll showed how concerned voters are about AI: more than half of respondents believe that AI will do more harm than good, while almost 80% are against the building of data centers in their neighborhoods.

随着民主党现在控制了国会，这可能会导致对数据中心选址以及当地社区话语权的新限制。数据中心已成为多个州的投票议题。NBC的一项出口民调显示了选民对人工智能的担忧程度：超过半数的受访者认为人工智能弊大于利，而近80%的人反对在他们的社区建设数据中心。

Almost 60%, meanwhile, said data centers were a crucial or major factor in their vote. Nadine Smith, president and CEO of the racial justice organization Color of Change, called Tuesday’s election a referendum on “who this economy is built for.” “National security matters,” Smith said, referring to a common argument from data center supporters that the infrastructure is essential for the U.S. to stay ahead in war and in its rivalry with China.

与此同时，近60%的人表示，数据中心是他们投票时的一个关键或主要因素。种族正义组织“变革之色”（Color of Change）的总裁兼首席执行官娜丁·史密斯（Nadine Smith）称周二的选举是一场关于“这个经济体是为谁而建”的公投。“国家安全很重要，”史密斯在提到数据中心支持者的一种常见论点时说，即该基础设施对于美国在战争和与中国的竞争中保持领先地位至关重要。

“And so do the families in South Memphis breathing exhaust from the gas turbines powering an AI supercomputer.” (She was referring to xAI’s data center in Memphis, Tennessee, which uses gas turbines for power.) Voters in several states pushed back against the AI buildout, even as pro-AI super PACs spent millions hoping to sway them this midterm.

“但南孟菲斯那些呼吸着为人工智能超级计算机供电的燃气轮机所排放废气的家庭也同样重要。”（她指的是位于田纳西州孟菲斯的xAI数据中心，该中心使用燃气轮机供电。）尽管支持人工智能的超级政治行动委员会（Super PACs）在中期选举期间花费了数百万美元试图影响选民，但多个州的选民仍对人工智能的扩张进行了抵制。

The anti-data center backlash was especially felt in states like Ohio, where OpenAI has eyed a $500 billion data center, backed by more than $100 billion in financing from Nvidia. In fact, the Ohio county where Meta had planned a 700,000-square-foot facility just passed a ban on data centers, and local communities across the state overwhelmingly voted against data center buildout measures.

这种反数据中心的强烈抵制在俄亥俄州尤为明显，OpenAI曾在此地看中了一个价值5000亿美元的数据中心项目，并获得了英伟达超过1000亿美元的融资支持。事实上，Meta原计划在俄亥俄州某县建设一座70万平方英尺的设施，但该县刚刚通过了对数据中心的禁令，全州各地的当地社区也以压倒性多数投票反对数据中心建设措施。

Analysts at Morgan Stanley predict that Democratic Gov.-elect Amy Acton will also pose a major risk to Ohio’s data center buildout. Elsewhere, candidates in Texas, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, Georgia, and South Carolina all won seats after taking a stance against the rapid buildout of data centers.

摩根士丹利的分析师预测，当选的民主党州长艾米·阿克顿（Amy Acton）也将对俄亥俄州的数据中心建设构成重大风险。在其他地方，德克萨斯州、缅因州、密歇根州、内华达州、佐治亚州和南卡罗来纳州的候选人在采取反对快速建设数据中心的立场后，均赢得了席位。

“It is clear that money does not buy outcomes,” said Aniketh Koneru, a tech and policy researcher, adding that in modern politics, creating a “local villain” is one way to build campaign momentum. Likely next steps include more construction moratoriums or requiring data centers to pay for their own power grid upgrades instead of passing those costs on to nearby communities.

“很明显，金钱买不到结果，”科技与政策研究员阿尼凯斯·科内鲁（Aniketh Koneru）表示，并补充说在现代政治中，制造一个“当地反派”是建立竞选势头的一种方式。可能的后续步骤包括更多的建设暂停令，或者要求数据中心自行支付电网升级费用，而不是将这些成本转嫁给附近的社区。

Goldman Sachs, in fact, predicts data center construction delays in states like Georgia and Texas because of Democratic gains. Democratic control of Congress could also improve the odds for bills like the one Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced earlier this year, though any such bill would also face a possible veto.

事实上，高盛预测，由于民主党的获胜，佐治亚州和德克萨斯州等州的数据中心建设将会推迟。民主党对国会的控制也可能提高一些法案通过的几率，例如参议员伯尼·桑德斯（Bernie Sanders）和众议员亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯（Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez）今年早些时候提出的法案，尽管任何此类法案都可能面临否决。

It proposes a nationwide moratorium on new data centers until Congress adds new guardrails and ensures that the buildout does not raise electricity costs, harm the environment, or proceed without community approval. There are also bills like the GRID Savings Act, proposed by New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, which would prevent grid infrastructure costs from being passed on to communities during large AI data center buildouts.

该法案提议在全国范围内暂停新建数据中心，直到国会增加新的护栏，并确保建设不会提高电费、破坏环境或在未经社区批准的情况下进行。此外还有诸如新墨西哥州参议员马丁·海因里希（Martin Heinrich）提出的《电网储蓄法案》（GRID Savings Act），该法案旨在防止在大型人工智能数据中心建设期间将电网基础设施成本转嫁给社区。

The environment is also a major concern, especially at xAI’s data center in Memphis and at the data centers throughout Virginia, known as the world capital of data centers, where gas turbines are used for power. Maia Woluchem, program director at Data & Society, a nonprofit research group, believes that changes to energy regulations, land rights, and other environmental policies could affect the data center buildout, especially as congressional Democrats look further into the Trump administration’s rollback of certain energy protections, as the New York Times reported they might.

环境问题也是一个主要担忧，特别是在孟菲斯的xAI数据中心以及被称为“世界数据中心之都”的弗吉尼亚州各处使用燃气轮机供电的数据中心。非营利研究组织“数据与社会”（Data & Society）的项目主任玛雅·沃卢切姆（Maia Woluchem）认为，能源法规、土地权利和其他环境政策的变化可能会影响数据中心的建设，特别是考虑到据《纽约时报》报道，国会民主党人可能会进一步审查特朗普政府对某些能源保护措施的撤销。

“Regardless of federal action, I could imagine that we will see additional movement at the state and local level, given the momentum that’s been building from the ground up,” Woluchem continued, citing Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa, who supports a statewide moratorium on data centers, as an example. Both Hinojosa and Gov. Greg Abbott called for some limits, but Hinojosa centered much of her campaign on opposing data centers, a notable choice in Texas, whose electrical grid has proved vulnerable over the past decade.

“无论联邦政府采取什么行动，考虑到自下而上形成的势头，我可以想象我们将看到州和地方层面的进一步行动，”沃卢切姆继续说道，并以支持全州范围内暂停数据中心建设的当选州长吉娜·伊诺霍萨（Gina Hinojosa）为例。伊诺霍萨和州长格雷格·阿博特（Greg Abbott）都呼吁进行一些限制，但伊诺霍萨将竞选的大部分重点放在了反对数据中心上，这在过去十年中电网已被证明脆弱的德克萨斯州是一个值得注意的选择。

But the hard part is still to come. Smith, for example, is now expecting a fight, or even more executive orders, to bypass what Congress is now likely to block. “Even among Democrats, a blanket freeze is contested,” she said, referring to some Democrats’ worry that a moratorium could slow AI progress and hurt national security. She also expects AI lobbyists to start calling lawmakers. “Democrats ran on making Big Tech pay,” Smith said. “Our job is to make sure they remember it once the cameras leave.”

但困难的部分还在后面。例如，史密斯现在预计会有一场斗争，甚至会有更多的行政命令来绕过国会现在可能阻止的事情。“即使在民主党内部，全面冻结也是有争议的，”她说，指的是一些民主党人担心暂停建设可能会减缓人工智能的进步并损害国家安全。她还预计人工智能游说者将开始游说立法者。“民主党人竞选时承诺要让大型科技公司付出代价，”史密斯说。“我们的工作是确保他们在镜头离开后依然记得这一点。”

The backlash runs deeper than the buildings themselves, which aren’t new. One private equity executive told me recently that people don’t necessarily hate data centers, but rather AI, and that data centers have become a stand-in for people’s fears and anxieties about the technology. “It does look like the results are pointing to a real frustration with tech power at minimum,” Woluchem said, noting that this is also a bipartisan issue.

这种抵制情绪比建筑物本身更深层，而这些建筑物并非新事物。一位私募股权高管最近告诉我，人们不一定讨厌数据中心，而是讨厌人工智能，数据中心已经成为人们对这项技术恐惧和焦虑的代名词。“结果确实表明，至少人们对科技巨头的权力感到真正的沮丧，”沃卢切姆说，并指出这也是一个两党共同关注的问题。

For the past month, people have told me they are worried about data centers’ effect on the environment and about their lack of say in whether they’re built. Amazon, for example, built a data center in Gilroy, California, without many residents knowing, by satisfying a 45-year-old zoning law. Vague or outdated zoning laws, along with requirements that local officials sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) barring them from discussing data center projects, have only fueled people’s outrage about the buildout.

过去一个月里，人们告诉我，他们担心数据中心对环境的影响，以及他们在是否建设这些设施方面缺乏发言权。例如，亚马逊在加利福尼亚州吉尔罗伊（Gilroy）建造了一个数据中心，许多居民对此并不知情，因为该公司满足了一项45年前的分区法。模糊或过时的分区法，加上要求当地官员签署禁止讨论数据中心项目的保密协议（NDA），只会加剧人们对这种建设的愤怒。