Community opposition to AI data center construction has intensified across the United States. In 2015 Apple announced a roughly $1 billion data center in Athenry, Ireland, which was approved in 2016 after a planning board review. Residents challenged the decision in court, and Apple withdrew the project in May 2018 after years of legal delays. Data centers supporting AI are projected to double energy demand by 2027, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and have been linked to higher local energy costs, water quality concerns, noise, light pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Between January and March, protesters blocked or delayed at least 75 AI data center projects valued at $130 billion, according to a Data Center Watch study, and collected over 235,000 petition signatures. The number of active opposition groups rose from 396 at the end of 2025 to 833 by the end of the first quarter of 2026, spanning 49 states. QTS abandoned a $12 billion campus in DeForest, Wisconsin, after community protests, and a planned 580‑acre facility in Delaware City was halted under the state’s Coastal Zone Act. A QTS data center in Prince William County, Virginia, was also blocked in July. Residents pressured Kevin O’Leary to scale back his 40,000‑acre Project Stratos proposal in Utah. In Congress, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2023 to accelerate AI data center construction, but some Republican candidates have distanced themselves from that stance ahead of the midterm elections. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez introduced a bill to pause new AI data center construction until legislation prevents utility price increases or environmental harm. Other lawmakers support the Ratepayer Protection Act, which would require tech companies to fund their own energy costs, and the GRID Act, which would mandate separate energy sources for data centers. State governments have enacted 28 laws related to AI data centers, including measures in Florida that bar cost passing to residents, Idaho restrictions on water use, and Washington’s removal of a tax break for data center operators. Large projects such as Meta’s $27 billion Hyperion facility in Louisiana, Google’s $10 billion Project Mica in Missouri, SpaceXAI’s $20 billion campus in Mississippi, and the $500 billion Stargate data center plan remain in various stages of development. Additional incidents, such as a water contamination event linked to a Meta contractor in Wyoming and rising electricity costs for Midwest factories, illustrate ongoing environmental and economic concerns. Federal legislation addressing the issue is pending, leaving many communities to manage the impacts of proposed data centers.