A reality check
Sure. But you also love your iPhone, Netflix, Venmo, ChatGPT, Google Maps, iCloud, Instagram, Spotify, your Ring doorbell, your Tesla, your smart thermostat, your online banking, and your kid's remote learning. Every single one of them runs inside a building you've never visited and probably don't want in your backyard.
01
“They use an obscene amount of water.”
✦ Context matters
A golf course uses more water than most data centers.
The average 18-hole golf course consumes 50–100 million gallons of water per year. A typical hyperscale data center uses 1–5 million gallons — and modern facilities are increasingly air-cooled or closed-loop, using near zero. Google's data centers in Oregon and Iowa operate at water usage effectiveness (WUE) below 0.3 liters per kWh. Meta's data center in Prineville, OR uses zero municipal water for cooling eight months a year.
Sources: AWWA, Google Environmental Report 2023, Meta Sustainability
02
“They strain the power grid and drive up my electric bill.”
✦ They fund the grid
Data centers are the utility's best customer — and they pay for upgrades.
Large data centers negotiate long-term power contracts that provide guaranteed, predictable load utilities depend on to justify grid investment. In Virginia, data centers have contributed over $1.5 billion in utility infrastructure investment. In most jurisdictions, commercial customers like data centers cross-subsidize residential rates, meaning their presence keeps your bill lower, not higher.
Sources: Dominion Energy, NRDC, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
03
“They don't create real local jobs.”
✦ Construction + multiplier effect
$1B in construction = 1,500+ jobs before a single server goes live.
A typical hyperscale facility generates 1,500–2,500 construction jobs over 2–3 years. Google's data center campus in Loudoun County, VA directly employs 200+ full-time workers at above-median wages and supports an estimated 4× that number in indirect jobs — electricians, security, HVAC, catering, logistics. Microsoft's data centers in Iowa generate more annual property tax revenue than the county's entire agricultural sector.
Sources: Google Economic Impact, Microsoft Iowa Community Report, CBRE
04
“They destroy farmland and natural areas.”
✦ Brownfields first
The industry's fastest-growing trend is converting dead industrial land.
Dozens of data centers are now being built on former coal plants, steel mills, and shuttered factories — sites that would otherwise sit contaminated and untaxed for decades. Examples: Aliquippa, PA (former steel mill), Homer City, PA (coal plant), Berwick, PA (former industrial), New Kensington, PA (former Alcoa plant). These brownfield conversions create tax revenue, clean up contaminated sites, and leave zero new agricultural land disturbed.
Sources: EPA Brownfields Program, FracTracker Alliance, local planning records
05
“They're terrible for the environment.”
✦ Efficiency has transformed the sector
Global data center energy use grew 10× in workload — and flat in emissions.
Between 2010 and 2022, data center compute output increased over 900% while total energy consumption grew only ~20%, per Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. The hyperscale shift to massive, efficient facilities dramatically cut per-unit emissions. Google has been carbon neutral since 2007 and matches 100% of its energy use with renewables. Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon have all committed to 100% renewable energy by 2030.
Sources: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab 2023, Google, EPA Green Power Partnership
06
“They lower surrounding property values.”
✦ No evidence supports this
Property values near data centers trend neutral to positive.
A comprehensive study of residential properties within 1 mile of data centers in Northern Virginia found no statistically significant negative impact on home values. In Loudoun County — the world's largest data center market — residential property values have appreciated faster than the state average over the past decade, driven partly by the tax base expansion that keeps residential rates low. Fear of data centers reliably outpaces the evidence against them.
Sources: Loudoun County Assessor, Virginia REALTORS Association, Urban Land Institute
07
“They don't pay their fair share of taxes.”
✦ Among the highest-taxed industrial uses
Data centers generate more tax revenue per acre than almost any other land use.
In Loudoun County, VA, data centers generate over $800 million in annual tax revenue — funding schools, roads, and emergency services — while occupying a fraction of the county's land. Virginia's data center sector paid $2.3 billion in state and local taxes in 2022. Some states offer partial sales tax exemptions on equipment to attract investment, but even with those incentives, the net fiscal impact is overwhelmingly positive.
Sources: Loudoun County Budget Office, Virginia Economic Development Partnership, NVTC
08
“The noise and light are unbearable for neighbors.”
✦ Regulated and engineered
Modern facilities are engineered to meet residential noise standards at the property line.
Data centers in most jurisdictions must comply with 45–55 dB noise ordinances at the property boundary — quieter than a typical suburban street. Modern cooling systems use acoustic barriers, vibration isolation, and directional exhaust. Light spill is addressed with full-cutoff fixtures and operational hours restrictions. When complaints do arise, operators typically resolve them within weeks through targeted engineering — the incentive to be a good neighbor is strong when permits for future expansion depend on it.
Sources: EPA Noise Standards, ASHRAE Guidelines, Loudoun County Zoning Ordinance
09
“They're just for big corporations — communities get nothing.”
✦ Community benefits are substantial
Many projects include negotiated community benefit agreements.
Beyond taxes, large data center projects increasingly include Community Benefit Agreements covering local hiring quotas, school STEM funding, fiber/broadband extensions to underserved areas, and workforce training programs. Meta's data center in New Albany, OH funded a $10M STEM center for local schools. Google's Loudoun campus funded road improvements, parks, and transit. Amazon's Indiana facilities are co-located with job training partnerships with Ivy Tech Community College.
Sources: Meta Community Reports, Google Economic Impact, Amazon Community Hub
10
“They use diesel generators that pollute constantly.”
✦ Emergency use only
Backup generators run a few hours per year in testing — not continuously.
Diesel generators at data centers are emergency backup systems, not primary power sources. EPA regulations (40 CFR Part 63, NESHAP) limit diesel generator operation to emergency use and scheduled testing totaling no more than 100 hours per year. Most large operators are actively replacing diesel with natural gas, hydrogen fuel cells, or battery systems. Microsoft has pledged to eliminate diesel backup generators entirely by 2030 in favor of green hydrogen fuel cells.
Sources: EPA 40 CFR Part 63, Microsoft Sustainability 2023, DOE FEMP
11
“If we approve one, we'll be overrun with them.”
✦ Zoning is the tool
Overlay districts give communities precise control over where and how many.
Communities are not forced to approve unlimited development. Data Center Overlay Districts — now used in dozens of Virginia, Indiana, and Ohio counties — designate specific zones where data centers are permitted and specify setbacks, noise limits, height, visual screening, and maximum density. Blakely, PA passed an ordinance in 2024 confining all data centers to a specific overlay zone after community pressure. The zoning toolkit works — the problem is usually that communities engage too late, after projects are already contracted.
Sources: Blakely Borough Zoning Ordinance 2024, Loudoun County ZOAM, APA Planning Advisory
12
“We should put the money into manufacturing — real jobs.”
✦ Compare the numbers
Data centers generate more tax revenue per employee than virtually any manufacturer.
A 100MW data center generates roughly $50–150M in annual property taxes with 50–200 permanent employees. A comparable-footprint manufacturing facility generating the same tax revenue would need to employ 2,000–5,000 workers with all the associated infrastructure costs — traffic, parking, utilities, worker services. Data centers are uniquely capital-intensive and low-impact: they fund public services without proportional demands on them. The comparison to manufacturing isn't either/or — data center tax revenue often directly funds the incentives that attract manufacturers.
Sources: CBRE Industrial Outlook, Loudoun County Economic Development, NVTC Impact Study 2023
The bottom line
Opposition to data centers is understandable. Change is uncomfortable, big buildings feel imposing, and communities rightfully want a voice. But the facts consistently show that well-sited, well-regulated data centers are among the most fiscally beneficial, environmentally efficient, and economically transformative industrial uses a community can attract. The question was never whether to build the infrastructure the digital economy requires. It's only ever been where — and how well.