"NO" to Data Centers

[onawah]

A Powerful “No” to Data Centers
Pushback of the Week, April 5, 2026
The Solari Report
https://solari.com/pushback-of-the-w...-data-centers/

(Hyperlinks in the article not embedded here)



“They call us old stupid farmers, you know, but we’re not.” ~ Ida Huddleston

"As Mr. Global’s Big Tech arm continues to try to bribe and bully its way into rural and urban communities to build hyperscale AI data centers, local pushback is gaining steam. This has alarmed leading global tech platforms to such an extent that a boutique research firm called Data Center Watch (a spinoff of 10a Labs, which collects intelligence “to stay ahead of evolving threats” to AI) is now tracking grassroots opposition.

Reporting that “local activism threatens to derail the U.S. data center boom,” Data Center Watch says that residents have blocked or delayed $64 billion in data center projects over the last two years, describing the centers as “the new NIMBY [Not In My Back Yard] flashpoint.” The research firm adds, “From noise and water usage to power demands and property values, server farms have become a new target in the broader backlash against large-scale development. The landscape of local resistance is shifting—and data centers are squarely in the crosshairs.”

Reflecting this sea change, data centers are also “becoming an important issue in local politics.” Residents opposing a data center in Hobart, Indiana (see image above) have criticized officials’ fast-tracking of approvals, evasion of transparency, and sabotaging of due process and public participation. In some localities, this type of behavior has gotten officials recalled or voted out of office.

Data Center Watch’s focus is on 142 organized activist groups across 24 states, but individual families are also making a difference. In northern Kentucky’s Mason County, two sets of local landowners have made headlines for rejecting outsized offers for their farmland by an anonymous AI company. Mother Ida Huddleston and daughter Delsia Bare declined a combined $26.5 million for roughly half of their 1,200-acre property (the company offered $48K to $60K per acre), and father and son Timothy and Andy Grosser turned down $8 million ($35K/acre) for 200-plus acres where they raise cattle.

Both families emphasize the intangible value of the land, which they say “means everything” to them. In the case of the mother-daughter duo, the land has belonged to their family for generations. Bare said, “My grandfather and great-grandfather and a whole bunch of family have all lived here for years, paid taxes on it, fed a nation off of it. Even raised wheat through the Depression.”

Huddleston cannily questions why the company won’t reveal its identity and suggests that its rosy promises of jobs and economic growth are highly exaggerated: “I say they’re a liar, and the truth isn’t in them…. It’s a scam.” As Data Center Watch neutrally observes, local residents are proving savvy enough to “challeng[e] the prevailing narrative that tech development is always a local economic win.”

Unfortunately, because some other Mason County landowners have agreed to sell, the final outcome there is still in play. However, local news reports about Huddleston and Bare clearly resonated with readers, who have thanked the women for refusing the money and praised them as the heroes they are.

Links
Northern Kentucky family declines $26 million bid as data center plans advance

Mason County mother, daughter reject millions as data center land dispute continues

Mason County family offered almost $8M for farm in potential data center development

No Data Centers Hobart Indiana

$64 billion of data center projects have been blocked or delayed amid local opposition

Half of planned US data center builds have been delayed or canceled, growth limited by shortages of power infrastructure and parts from China—the AI build-out flips the breakers"

Data Center Watch

Related at Solari
Movie of the Week: February 28, 2026: Datacenters Behaving like Acoustic Weapons
Pushback against Local—and Locally Funded—Surveillance

[ExomatrixTV]

• New Battles RAGE Across The Country Over Data Center Construction!:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=KqOzexRjTf0

• We need to talk:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ktoWPIeVrzk

@DaveShap quote:

"This video has been up for 16 minutes, and I've already had to ban a few people for various levels of inciting violence or cheerleading violence. I am going to keep the comments open, but I encourage everyone to report violent comments, or comments that advocate or cheerlead more violence".

see also:

• Problems with AI, 2025 and Beyond
• Unusual and Bizarre Uses and Behaviors of AI
• A.I. is Progressing Faster Than You Think!

cheers,
John 🦜🦋🌳

[ExomatrixTV]

• The AI Backlash Has Reached a Tipping Point:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=eDSaZveGttk

Data center pays no property taxes but if you want to build a barn on your own land now you have to pay more!

• The Fall of Sam Altman :

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nCg-td40MPQ

How Sam Altman and OpenAI sold the world on the utopian promise of safe AGI, when the reality is a desperate, $14 billion cash-burning panic barricaded behind armed guards. From the quiet assassination of their own internal safety teams and the explosive, real-world backlash that put a literal firebomb on Altman’s driveway, to the massive enterprise failure of the ChatGPT ecosystem and the terrifying rise of unhinged autonomous agents, here is how the biggest artificial intelligence empire in Silicon Valley is rapidly collapsing under the weight of its own God complex.

[onawah]

The Data Center Next Door Isn't Just an Eyesore
The Solari Report/C.A. Fitts
4/29/26
<solari_newsletter@solari-two.com> https://solari.com/the-fast-approach...tions-to-date/

"Residents living near hyperscale AI facilities are raising alarms regulators have largely ignored: radiofrequency emissions linked to cancer clusters, industrial infrasound that operates below hearing range yet measurably harms health—perhaps not quite the vibrations the Beach Boys had in mind—and growing evidence that these facilities are the physical backbone of a surveillance apparatus.

In the U.S., grassroots opposition has blocked or delayed $64 billion in projects across 24 states.

Bravo! Keep it up!

This is what the power of people working together looks like. It serves as an important reminder to never underestimate what an informed and organized community can achieve."



Further information:

Movie of the Week, Datacenters Behaving like Acoustic Weapons
https://solari.com/movie-of-the-week...ustic-weapons/

Pushback of the Week, A Powerful “No” to Data Centers
https://solari.com/pushback-of-the-w...-data-centers/

Pushback against Local—and Locally Funded—Surveillance
https://solari.com/pushback-against-...-surveillance/

The Fast-Approaching Digital Control Grid: A Checklist of Trump Administration Actions to Date,
https://solari.com/the-fast-approach...tions-to-date/

Video here: https://live.solari.com/w/9ziaksSGy3MzKmSzg1yYbR