Why One Small Town Is Fighting Six Data Centers at Once

A former coal town in Pennsylvania — smaller than Manhattan — is staring down six proposed data center campuses at once, and the neighbors fighting them are no longer alone. From a $100 million lawsuit in Texas to a quiet revolt sweeping a third of Indiana's counties, the backlash against the AI data center boom has gone national. Here's what's reshaping the U.S. data center landscape right now.

🚨 **COMMUNITY** — Archbald, Pennsylvania faces more data center campus proposals than any other municipality in the state — six separate projects. Residents, from retirees to young families across the political divide, formed "Stop Archbald Data Centers," packing hearing after hearing in fading yellow T-shirts. (Source: NPR / WVIA)

⚖️ **LEGAL** — After Hill County, Texas passed one of the state's first data center moratoriums, developer RCM Hill fired back with a $100 million federal lawsuit over its stalled 1,235 MW "Project Aquila." Commissioners rescinded the pause and adopted a review checklist — but the lawsuit is still live. (Source: Texas Tribune / KWTX)

🗳️ **POLICY** — Nearly a third of Indiana's counties have now moved to restrict data centers. Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute counts 11 county ordinances, 17+ temporary moratoriums, and 2 outright bans — a county-by-county rebellion over power bills, water, and noise. (Source: WBOI / IU ERI)

⚡ **POWER** — 4,500+ U.S. data centers already use ~176 TWh a year, over 4% of national electricity. Demand jumped from 23 GW in 2023 to ~42 GW today, and PJM warns it could fall 6 GW short of its reliability target by 2027. FERC has ordered the six largest grid operators to rewrite large-load rules. (Source: S&P Global / Data Center Knowledge)

💧 **WATER** — Project Jupiter, a massive Oracle-and-OpenAI complex, is rising in the Chihuahuan Desert near the New Mexico–Texas border. A single data center can use up to a billion gallons of water a year; about two-thirds of 800+ planned U.S. facilities target drought-prone land, and 36 states are weighing new water rules. (Source: NPR / Tom's Hardware)

🏛️ **POLICY** — As of July 1, Arizona froze its data center sales tax exemption for three years, and Illinois' Gov. Pritzker and Ohio's Gov. DeWine both paused their incentives the same day. Over 300 data center bills have been filed in 30 states; California, Ohio and Utah now make developers cover their own energy costs. (Source: MultiState)

🏗️ **NEW BUILD** — Microsoft cut the ribbon on a $3.3 billion data center in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin — the first at its campus there — and broke ground on another in La Porte, Indiana, even as counties across that state move to restrict them. (Source: Data Center Knowledge)

💰 **INVESTMENT** — A group of investors agreed to acquire Aligned Data Centers for roughly $40 billion — one of the year's largest deals. Buyers include MGX, Global Infrastructure Partners, Microsoft, xAI, Nvidia, Temasek, the Kuwait Investment Authority and BlackRock. (Source: