Rural Americans are increasingly fed up with data centers

Rural Americans are antagonistic toward new data centers near them, according to a new Pew Research poll.

Bloomberg/Getty Images A growing share of Americans living in rural areas aren't happy with data centers.

Most data centers are built in rural areas.

Data centers are facing a public reckoning amid bipartisan pushback.

Americans living in rural areas are increasingly souring on data centers .

In a new poll by the Pew Research Center, which surveyed people in August, half of rural Americans said data centers "are mostly bad for the environment" — a figure substantially higher than in January, when it sat at 32%.

46% of those respondents also said that data centers would drive up home energy costs, up from 32% in January.

45% said they negatively impact the quality of life for those living nearby, while 28% said so in January.

While displeasure with data centers increased among Americans across the board, according to Pew, higher levels of antagonism among rural voters are striking because most data centers are built in rural areas .

The data center buildout, which proponents say is integral for the US to keep pace with China in the AI race, has been suffering a PR crisis as a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers moves to impose limits on data center construction.

Texas Gov.

Greg Abbot, who was formerly bullish about building data centers in his state, recently backed away from that optimism.

His administration has halted some 1,800 AI data center projects in the state.

All across the country, Americans are rallying to fight against AI data centers , which can cost billions to build and span hundreds of acres.