Data Centers: Education Drives Support and Trump’s Ratepayer Pledge Answers the Top Concern

The debate over data centers is being driven by misinformation and when voters get the facts, they move decisively toward support.

That’s the clear takeaway from our February survey, and it’s a powerful argument for the kind of public education effort the industry and the Trump administration need to be making.

Here’s the key finding: when voters learn that modern data centers recycle water similarly to car washes and reuse the same water for up to 10 years, support jumps dramatically. Thirty-three percent become more supportive, while only 13% become less so, a better than 2.5-to-1 ratio in favor of data centers. Among Republicans, that ratio is even stronger. The anti-data-center narrative is built on a misconception about water usage, and it collapses when voters hear the truth.

President Trump addressed this issue head-on in his State of the Union, announcing his “ratepayer protection pledge” requiring major tech companies to build their own power plants to serve their data centers, so that no one’s electricity prices go up. As the President put it: “In many cases prices of electricity will go down for the community.” This innovative, market-driven solution can turn voter skepticism of data centers into support.

The data makes clear: the path forward for data center development is education, energy independence, and the kind of
bold executive action this President specializes in.

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