US voters slow data center construction through 43 local measures
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After the US midterm elections, voters passed 43 of 44 local measures aimed at slowing data center construction, and more than $2.5 trillion was wiped off the Nasdaq market value. Using the DataVita project in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, as a template, the article proposes an arrangement: developers pay up to $100,000 per megawatt per year into a community fund, reaching $50 million per year at 500MW of capacity, equivalent to 3% of the local council's annual revenue.
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- Exponential View🔮 Don’t waste a good backlash
After Democrats won the midterms, more than $2.5 trillion was wiped off the Nasdaq as investors fled the AI trade, and US voters passed 43 of 44 local measures to slow data centers. The article argues this backlash is leverage rather than a death knell, citing DataVita's Lanarkshire deal to pay up to $100,000 per megawatt per year to a local community fund, and contrasts it with Oracle's smaller New Mexico package. It notes data centers create few permanent jobs per billion dollars spent and urges counties in grid queues to negotiate more.
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