The U.S. tech industry is continuing a push for more land for data centers in rural areas, and it’s causing some farmer pushback. Data centers target rural areas because they require a lot of land and access to substantial water supplies and electricity. During a recent stop in Wisconsin, Vice President J.D. Vance talked about the push for expanding data centers.
“Look, there’s good news and bad news with data centers. Now, the good news is, first of all, they’re big facilities. You create a lot of construction jobs, and in this next generation of the technological revolution, you need those data centers to make them run. Those data centers are like the gasoline of the technology revolution that we’re going to see over the next 75 years, and I don’t know about you all, but I want America to win that technology revolution. I don’t want China or some other country to win it, and so that’s why we have to have these things. Now here’s the downside. If those centers are built and the local governments aren’t ensuring that there’s enough power for those data centers, then it’s increase electricity costs for everybody else.”
Vance said the federal government is working to make data centers a less expensive investment for rural residents in the surrounding areas.
“What we think the data centers have got to do is they’ve got to work with the local governments, with the state governments, and in the federal government, we are trying to do everything that we can so that if you build a data center, for example, you can just build a power plant right next door. What I think we ought to be working towards is you build those data centers, and electricity costs come down for American citizens instead of going up for American citizens. The data centers can afford it. We’ve got to make sure that they’re good neighbors, so that when they come in and build these great buildings, the people in their neighborhood, the people in their community, benefit too, and that’s through lower power. That’s the best way they can be good neighbors.”