Congress wants in on the data center backlash

Members of Congress are scrambling to jump on the growing anti-data center fervor sweeping through local communities across the country.

Why it matters: Where there is this kind of intense grassroots uproar, there is also political opportunity — and lawmakers know it.

• The latest example is legislation from Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) to restrict companies' ability to sue municipalities for rejecting applications to build data centers.
• The bill — called "the Local Control Protection Act" — would also require developers to file a legally binding "community benefit agreement" or lose out on federal tax incentives, per legislative text first shared with Axios.

State of play: Growing public anxiety about the rapid growth of AI is fueling bitter fights at the local level to stop data centers from being built, Axios' Madison Mills reported.

• Objections include alleged environmental damage, high energy usage and resultant utility cost increases, and noise, air and water pollution.
• More than 350,000 people signed a petition opposing a proposed data center bordering the Nashville Zoo, according to Axios' Nate Rau.
• In Seattle, local officials have moved to ban new large data centers for a year, Axios' Melissa Santos wrote.

By the numbers: Legislative proposals to restrict data center construction were fairly rare on Capitol Hill before this year.

• Now, Republicans and Democrats alike are flooding the zone.
• In the last three months alone, more than a dozen bills have been introduced to either investigate data centers' impacts or restrict their proliferation in some way.

Between the lines: It's not just toothless bills to commission reports and studies — though there are those too, looking at resource consumption, environmental ramifications and the effects on communities of color.

• Several proposals aim to protect consumers from any energy cost spikes that result from data center production.
• Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has introduced a bill to impose an outright moratorium on new data center construction "until legislation is enacted that safeguards the public from the dangers of artificial intelligence."

What they're saying: "We should never let billion-dollar corporations supersede the voices of those who live in the community," Bresnahan, one of Republicans' most endangered incumbents, said in statement.

• "The people who live here, work here, and raise their families here are the ones who know what's best for our communities."

Reality check: The prospect of any of these bills passing is slim — Congress has notoriously made scant progress in passing any guardrails on AI.

• And as Axios previously reported, AI and AI-adjacent companies are spending big through super PACs in the 2026 midterms to curry favor with sitting lawmakers and get allies elected to Congress.