Today, Explained Data center backlash!
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Dec 1, 2025 
Miles Bryan, a senior producer and reporter, shares firsthand accounts of community backlash against the data center boom. He reveals how local residents are organizing against noise and rising energy costs while highlighting the political tensions this issue is creating. Umair Irfan, a Vox reporter specializing in climate and energy, discusses the potential of cheap clean energy and its implications. Both guests explore the future of energy, from innovative technologies to the environmental stakes involved in these large infrastructures.
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From Steel Mill To Data Center Pitch
- Miles Bryan traces Conshohocken’s shift from a 19th-century steel mill town to a proposed AI data center site.
- The mill closed, leaving economic pain that made the data center pitch — jobs and tax revenue — compelling to local officials.
Neighbors Mobilize Overnight
- Genevieve Boland and Patti Smith organized neighbors after learning a data center was planned a block away.
- They plastered flyers and used Facebook to rapidly build local opposition around noise, light, and electricity concerns.
Data Centers Can Raise Local Power Prices
- Rising data center electricity demand is correlated with higher regional power prices and bills for ordinary consumers.
- As more data centers come online, demand and residential costs have trended upward in parts of the grid.