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Data center backlash is really about electricity, not a culture war
Data center opposition isn't about culture wars-it's about electricity. Virginia now forces developers to pay full transmission costs, while AI firms drop $3.4 billion on gas turbines to bypass the grid entirely.
Two days after the US midterm elections, OpenAI's chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane framed the growing opposition to data centers as a culture war-a proxy fight over corporate power and public unease. But reporting from Ashburn, Virginia, the epicenter of Data Center Alley, reveals a simpler fault line. The backlash is not primarily about symbolism. It is about electricity.
The physical demands of powering AI-scale data centers create two distinct paths, and each provokes its own form of resistance. Connecting to the existing grid strains local utilities and spreads costs. Generating power onsite with natural gas turbines and diesel generators brings air pollution and industrial-scale infrastructure to communities that had little say in the matter.
The grid connection problem
In Loudoun County, Virginia, most data centers draw power from Dominion Energy's grid. The average facility there has a power capacity of 54 megawatts-more than the draw of Denver International Airport. Elena Schlossberg, a prominent activist against data centers in Virginia, rejects the culture war framing entirely. "It was always about power," she said, referring to electricity.
Recent protests have already produced concrete policy changes. Virginia now requires data centers to pay fully for new transmission line costs, preventing those expenses from being spread across ratepayers. Developers are also preparing for rules that would cut them off from grid power during peak demand. Schlossberg worries about downstream effects: more diesel generator use during shortages, or Dominion expanding fossil fuel inputs rather than renewables to meet demand.
Bringing your own power
The AI data centers being built elsewhere in the country follow a different model. The scale is so massive that companies are setting up in rural areas with virtually no grid infrastructure. Building there means bringing your own power behind the meter, typically in the form of natural-gas turbines with diesel backup. Anthropic has reportedly agreed to pay $3.4 billion for gas turbines in what is described as the largest power generation purchase by an AI company.
The smallest facilities attractive for AI training are 300 megawatts. The ideal facilities are closer to 6,000 megawatts-the estimated draw of Chicago, which runs on more than 20 power plants within the city alone. Generating electricity at this scale inevitably affects surrounding communities. When public utilities build infrastructure of this magnitude, communities expect a say. Private companies are now undertaking projects on a similar scale, and in the rush to operate, they have become what one observer described as horrible neighbors. The Environmental Protection Agency found that Elon Musk violated air quality laws when he set up dozens of turbines to power a data center in Memphis.
The limits of public relations
One data center developer recently said industry insiders see their ambitions as constrained less by public opposition than by a lack of electricity. That admission points to the physical reality Big Tech's messaging often obscures. Companies can negotiate better tax deals, hire local workers, and increase community involvement. But there is only so pleasant you can make a small city of computers to live around.
What comes next is already taking shape. If new data centers need their own power generated onsite, they will go where there are the fewest people able to resist them-places like the Permian Basin, where natural gas lines are accessible and populations are sparse. Companies are also looking abroad. Google announced the day after the elections that it will spend $15 billion on data center projects in Malaysia. Hours after the midterm results, Elon Musk posted another possibility: "Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now."
Why this matters for operations and strategy leaders
Site selection for data centers is becoming a political and regulatory calculation as much as a technical one. The distinction between grid-connected and behind-the-meter power determines which community opposition tactics you will face-ratepayer revolts in populated areas, or environmental and land-use battles in rural ones. Neither is easily solved by public relations. Operational timelines must now account for local rule changes, transmission cost disputes, and air quality enforcement actions that can delay projects regardless of how much capital is behind them.