Activists protest the environmental consequences of data center expansion outside a data center conference in Washington, D.C., on April 21. File Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA
Data center projects continue to generate controversy around the country. In part, that's because a variety of different groups have competing interests--- some in favor of them, some opposed and others with no direct view on data centers themselves, but with concerns that relate to aspects of data center operations and effects.
As a scholar of environmental justice and urban land use, I've seen these various conflicting forces at work in Michigan. More than 30 large and small data center projects have been proposed in the state in the past two years alone, including one by the university where I work.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is enthusiastic about bringing technology companies to the state, even posing with tech company CEOs in photo ops at the sites of proposed data centers.
But not everyone is as excited. In just one example of the opposition these projects can face, the local water company where I live, the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority, told the state it would not supply water for cooling a data center that the University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory had proposed within its service area.
