A recent item on DesMoinesRegister.com invited Iowans to share their thoughts about data center construction and how their elected leaders are handling to push to build more of the facilities. Below is a selection of the responses we received.
Don’t give public benefits to data centers few people want
Anyone remember the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2008? The Chrysler Motor Co. bailout in 1979? How about the savings and loan crisis in the 1990s? These all involved large, for-profit companies owned primarily by shareholders.
Big companies have come to expect preferential tax treatment, subsidies and bailouts. They expect taxpayers to pick up the tab if they fail.
If Big Tech falters with its intention to impose data centers on our society, the same thing will happen.
Data centers and the CO2 “Pipeline to Nowhere” present some similar threats: water resource exploitation, decreased property values, higher utility rates, health and safety risks, and dismal prospects for human employment. Taxpayers will be expected to carry the load despite the fact that hardly anyone wants the data centers or the pipeline.
The top seven Big Tech oligarchs increased their wealth by $1.7 trillion since 2024. They are likely to come crying if things don’t work out. Let’s collectively decide that data centers are a problem and show resistance. Pay attention to what is going on with decision makers. Especially at the local and county level.
Jeff Milks, Oelwein
How long will data centers’ consumption be sustainable?
The mayor of Council Bluffs got it right. Mayor Jill Shudak proposed a moratorium on new data centers to the Council Bluffs City Council. The council voted it down, citing a possible loss of economic growth.
Council Bluffs is home to two of Google’s hyperscale data centers, which are massive computing facilities, typically spanning over 10,000 square feet and housing 5,000 or more servers. These facilities consume massive amounts of water and electricity.
A third hyperscale center is under construction. Given the massive consumption of our natural resources, a pause or moratorium makes sense, we need to figure out what is sustainable in the long run.
Patricia Fuller, Council Bluffs
Companies shouldn’t need our help to build data centers
Why are our elected officials in such a hurry to give our resources to big tech, especially by moving forward with or without the approval of the communities they serve, such as Palo?
The officials who believe these data centers will be such a benefit to their communities should be talking to the people who are already affected by these centers. The U.S. Department of Energy has directed grid operators to order some large data centers to switch to on-site backup generators so there will be enough power for regular citizens. It does not require an extensive search to find information as to why so many people who live where data centers already exist are opposed to them; higher energy costs, massive water consumption, noise, just to name a few.
The data centers should cover their own costs rather than receiving billions of dollars in financial incentives from state and local governments and not be built in communities where the community members oppose them.
Lori Amos, Center Point
Each data center forever changes Iowa’s landscape
“Take your medicine, it will be good for you. And here is a little something extra to make it taste better,” said every developer coming into Iowa who wants to gobble up more precious land for a project with questionable merit.
Iowa soils have a structure that once disturbed may take years to recover from, if they ever return to past productivity.
Hog confinement buildings represent thousands of acres of disturbed soil covered with concrete. Housing and urban sprawl continue to eat up fertile land. Wind turbines cover their development tracks by leveling and seeding disturbed soils at the project’s conclusion, but during development each turbine build causes a shocking amount of soil destruction.
And now we have data centers creating a huge footprint over the soils of our state. As energy needs rise with the growth of data centers comes expansive new power plant builds. Any of these endeavors alone might be causing minimal loss of acres, but this is all happening together. We need to stop and seriously assess what this means for our future as an agricultural state. Who is benefiting by exploiting our land?
Every developer has a well-thought-out strategy to convince us this is all good for us. We don’t need manipulative strategy. We need transparent and honest information and an Iowa-first strategy going forward. This is for us to decide. not them.
Berleen Wobeter, Toledo
Data centers are OK if resources are available
If the water resources are readily available to handle the needs of these centers, I think they are something local governments should consider.
John Torbert, Clive
For data centers, the product doesn’t at all justify the cost
I am worried that data centers are a significant drain on our resources, contribute to increased energy bills for residents, and are primarily used to gather data that is sold online.
Furthermore, if people are against traffic cameras and government surveillance, it follows that they should also be against the data centers that collect and store this information.
John Moore, Newton
Don’t invest to enable government surveillance
They are called data centers. What they really are is mass surveillance centers. They will be leveraged for government and corporations to track individuals and much more. Building them and disrupting wildlife and Iowa’s beautiful landscape is just sinful.
Mary Crist, West Des Moines
No new data centers in Iowa
Data centers are a huge concern for thousands of Iowans. That’s what Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement learned from a statewide survey we did in May.
They gobble up our water, energy and farmland, among other things. And they also gobble up our tax dollars to the tune of billions each year through property tax abatements, sales tax exemptions and other subsidies.
The technology that data centers use may be new, but the underlying story has been around a long time: big corporations profit by extracting and over-using our finite resources, while offloading the costs onto taxpayers and our communities.
People are turning out in large numbers to tell their elected officials: No new data centers in Iowa! So far, nearly 20 Iowa counties have passed data center moratoriums. More are needed.
Analysts say the current AI data center expansion far exceeds what we need for our normal, day-to-day lives, which makes me wonder: Is this mostly about putting a lot more money in the pockets of Big Tech’s wealthy tycoons?
Let’s use some common sense and put a long pause on this too-fast, too-much expansion. Prudence will serve us well.
Hugh Espey, Des Moines
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Many Iowans are skeptical about building data centers | Letters
Reporting by The Register’s readers, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By The Register's readers, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
