Where communities fought data centers, who won, and how many megawatts were at stake, set against how fast the national buildout is growing. Each site has a short sourced history.
| Site | Place | Owner | Used by | Power today | Related case |
|---|
Pins appear when a project became public and take their outcome color on the date it was decided. Size shows announced or planned megawatts; sites without a published figure are drawn small.
Patterns across the documented cases, counted from the data and updated as cases are added. The cases are a hand-picked sample, so read these as leads worth testing, not national rates. Each icon is a case: select one to open it.
Announced or planned capacity of the documented sites by outcome, as of the month on the timeline. These are maximums the developers or utilities stated, not measured use.
Four public measures of the buildout. None covers everything: each counts a different part of it.
The sites are a documented sample, not a census. They are well-reported cases chosen to show each outcome, so fights are over-represented. The US has about 4,800 data centers of all sizes; most were never contested in public.
Stopped means rejected, withdrawn or banned after public opposition. It does not mean the project is dead everywhere: developers sometimes move. Approved despite opposition means it went ahead over organized objections; some approvals still face lawsuits. Still being fought means a decision is still pending, or the approval is at trial and construction has not begun.
Little or no organized opposition found means we searched and found no organized campaign at the time of approval. Individual objections and later complaints are noted on each case. Absence of coverage is not proof that nobody objected.
Dates. A pin appears at the earliest date we could source: an announcement, a filing or the first coverage. It takes its color on the date of the decision that set its current status.
Megawatts are announced or planned figures from developers, utilities or filings. They are maximums, not usage, and many sites never publish one. Totals count only sites with a figure.
Cause and claims. We say a project was stopped by opposition only when sources link the two. Both sides' arguments are given where reported. Claims that a person or company did something wrong are attributed to whoever made them, with the response where one was reported. Private residents are not named.
Right of reply. Anyone named here, including companies, officials and groups, can ask for a correction or for their response to be added. We aim to review requests within a few days and note significant corrections on the case.
The biggest AI campuses layer is separate from the fights. It plots the US sites in Epoch AI's dataset of the largest AI data centers, sized by Epoch's estimate of the power each draws today, which is not the same measure as the announced maximums on the fight pins. It is not counted in the findings or the ledger, and it shows only at the latest month because it describes today.
National figures come from the Census Bureau (via reporting on its tables), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Epoch AI and Data Center Watch, each linked on its panel.
Corrections and new cases. Facts change quickly in these fights. Each case shows when it was last checked and the date of its newest source. If you know of a ruling or vote we've missed, or a fight that should be here, send it with a public source.