VIRGINIA — Meta pitched a proposal to build one of the largest artificial intelligence data centers in the world in Richland Parish, Louisiana, minutes after Susan Bourgeois was appointed director of Louisiana Economic Development, the state agency responsible for strengthening business growth. Meta's investment in the project amounts to $1.3 billion in construction wages and nearly $1 billion in tax revenue over five years.

"I was pulled aside in the lobby of the Hilton hotel by the CEO of Entergy Louisiana, who said, 'We have a project and need to talk,'" Bourgeois said, describing the encounter 15 minutes after her appointment. Since 2024, demand for AI and the computing power it requires has grown, with business demands, consumer usage and U.S. government investment propelling data center growth across nearly every state.

The environmental and aesthetic impacts of the facilities have generated strong opposition in many communities, and the issue has become a voting issue for many people ahead of the midterm elections.

"It has become a kitchen table issue, and it has become a very relevant political issue," said Christabel Randolph, associate director of the Center for AI and Digital Policy. "Tech companies coming to build in their backyard is going to increase their bills, all of those things that ordinary Americans understand as impacting their affordability."

Residents' concerns include noise, power demands, pollution, unsustainable water needs, environmental degradation and secrecy in deal negotiations. Since Meta began construction on the Louisiana data center, residents have complained their water is brown or rust-colored and smells like disinfectant, and many now drink only bottled water. Public meetings have stretched for hours, with some cities moving them outdoors to accommodate attendees.

In the absence of federal legislation and with most states still developing regulations, local governments have been responsible for evaluating data center projects. Opposition to data centers has cut across party lines.

"It is very much a Wild West," said Julie Bolthouse, director of land use at the Piedmont Environmental Council. "[Local governments] are really the only ones who can turn down a data center project, and so a locality is going to evaluate a data center the same way they evaluate a Walmart or a residential housing development."

State legislatures have considered bills ranging from eliminating tax incentives to imposing moratoriums on data center construction. Maine's Democratic-controlled Legislature approved a pause on most data center construction, and the Florida Legislature passed a bill to regulate water and energy usage and restrict locations. Other states have moved in the opposite direction: North Carolina has exempted electricity used by data centers from sales tax, Georgia exempts sales tax on computing equipment, and in Port Washington, Wisconsin, local leaders wrote a special zoning code to facilitate construction.