Missouri Town Votes Out Every City Council Member Who Approved Data Center 

AI data centers have become a hot-button issue in cities across America, and for good reason. They don’t create jobs, have negative environmental impacts, and result in dramatically higher electricity bills in certain areas. A Missouri town decided to show how serious they are about pushing back against data centers by voting out every city council member who approved a resolution to build a data center in their town. 

According to STLPR, all four city council members who approved a plan to build a data center in Festus, Missouri, lost their bids for reelection. “This data center fight has struck this community to the core and really, honestly ignited a community-driven effort here,” Dan Moore, who defeated Ward 3 incumbent Bobby Benz, told STLPR. “People are awake now, and we’re not going to let this continue on anymore.”

One of the biggest issues Festus voters had with the data center plan was the lack of transparency and the feeling that the council members cared less about the concerns of the town’s residents and more about the tax revenue a potential data center could bring in. “We have been ignored for way too long,” Moore said. “It has been a problem in Festus for quite some time. I think this has just brought it to the surface.”

Politico reports that on the same day the city of Festus ousted the council members, voters in Port Washington, Wisconsin, approved a referendum to stop future data centers from being built in response to Oracle and OpenAI building a $15 billion data center campus in the city. 

Over the last year, similar stories have been playing out nationwide. In my backyard in Chandler, Arizona, the city council debated a plan to build a data center. None other than the Democratic Senator-turned-Independent-turned-apparent corporate shill, Kyrsten Sinema, was behind the effort, claiming that her organization, AI Coalition Infrastructure, was working “hand in glove with the Trump administration.” 

Despite Sinema making a vague threat that if the data center wasn’t approved, President Donald Trump himself would get involved, Chandler’s city council unanimously voted it down after droves of residents voiced their concerns during the public hearing period. It’s been four months since the vote, and wouldn’t you know, Trump is spending more time destabilizing the Middle East than getting involved in local data center battles. 

While a relatively recent development, in their short time, AI data centers have done more harm than good in the communities they are located in. While data centers may create temporary jobs during the construction phase, once they’re built, they need very few people on hand in order to operate. It’s not the same as building something like a chip fab, which again, Intel and TSMC have done in my hometown. Those chip fabs actually did create a significant number of jobs in the Phoenix Metro area at their peak. 

Data centers also require massive amounts of water to function, with larger data centers consuming up to 1.8 billion gallons of water annually. Considering that many states in the southwest are staring down the barrel of a catastrophic water crisis, it makes zero sense to build a data center that will likely exacerbate it. Even in places that aren’t in the throes of a drought, data centers contribute significant amounts of noise and light pollution that significantly impact the quality of life of those who live in the neighborhoods that surround them. 

Of course, our basic environmental needs mean nothing in the pursuit of shareholder value. 

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