When Oregon resident Isabelle Reksopuro heard Google was gobbling up public land to fuel its data centers in her home state, she didn't initially know what to believe. “There’s a lot of misinformation about data centers,” she said. “Google has denied taking that land.” Technically, she explains, The Dalles, a city near the Washington state border, sought to reclaim that land, “and Google is just a big, unnamed power user.” The city had in fact asked for ownership of a 150-acre portion of Mount Hood National Forest, claiming it needs access to Mount Hood’s watershed to meet municipal needs as its population grows. But critics, including environmentalists, say the city is trying to secure more water for Google, which has a sprawling data center campus in The Dalles that already consumes about one-third of the city’s water supply.
This controversy made Reksopuro curious about the backlash to data centers being built in other communities. So Reksopuro, a student at the University of Washington who studies the connections between tech and public policy, decided to map it out. Using information collected by Epoch AI and data scraped from legislation on data centers, she built an interactive map tracking AI policy around the world. She designed it to be simple enough for anyone to use. “I wanted it to be something that my younger sisters could play through and explore to understand what are the data centers in the area and what’s actually being done about it,” Reksopuro said. She hoped to shift their opinions that way, “instead of like, through TikTok.”
Using Claude, the map searches for new sources four times a day and checks them against the existing database Reksopuro built out. “Once it does that, it will write a new summary, add it to the news feed, and populate it on the sidebar,” she said. “I wanted it to be self-updating, since I’m also a student.” Opposition to data centers is one of the few things that unites Americans across party lines. After the initial construction phase, data centers bring few permanent jobs, and send “power costs to records in much of the US,” reports Bloomberg. Though data centers are increasingly controversial, Reksopuro’s map shows that the public response to them is nowhere near universal, nor are the policies governing their construction and use.
While there’s been a huge backlash to data centers in Maine — which in April passed the first state-level moratorium on hyperscale data centers, though it was later vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills — Texas “is a huge fan of data centers,” Reksopuro said. “Texas actually passed a tax exemption for data centers.” The state gives data centers more than $1 billion in tax breaks each year, The Texas Tribune reports. Reksopuro isn’t against data centers, but she thinks tech giants benefit from a lack of transparency around data center policies. “Right now, it’s this really opaque thing — and all of a sudden, there’s a facility,” she said. “I think that if people knew about data centers beforehand, it would give them leverage. They would be able to negotiate: ask for job training programs, tax revenue, environmental monitoring, things to improve their community.”
Data centers require massive amounts of electricity and water to operate. A typical hyperscale facility can consume as much power as a small city, and the cooling systems often rely on vast quantities of water. In The Dalles, Oregon, Google’s data center campus uses about 4 million gallons of water per day—enough to supply roughly 12,000 households. This has led to tensions with local residents who worry about straining scarce resources. The map Reksopuro built highlights dozens of similar conflicts across the United States and around the world.
In Northern Virginia, known as “Data Center Alley,” the demand for electricity has prompted utilities to build new natural gas plants and delay retirement of coal-fired units. Environmental groups have filed lawsuits to block expansions, arguing that data centers undermine state climate goals. Meanwhile, in states like Georgia and South Carolina, local governments have offered lucrative tax incentives to attract data center projects, often with minimal public scrutiny. Reksopuro’s map also includes a news feed that aggregates articles and legislative updates, providing a real-time window into the evolving policy landscape.
The map covers more than just the United States. It includes data centers in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, showing how different regions are grappling with the same challenges. In the Netherlands, for instance, a moratorium on new data centers was imposed in 2019 due to concerns over energy consumption, but it was later relaxed after industry negotiations. In Singapore, a similar pause was lifted only for facilities that meet strict energy efficiency benchmarks. These examples illustrate the tension between economic development and environmental sustainability that data centers represent.
Beyond policy, the map also tracks controversies involving land use and community displacement. In rural areas, data centers are often built on farmland or forested land, sparking debates about property rights and local autonomy. In some cases, landowners welcome the cash infusion from leasing their land; in others, residents feel steamrolled by corporate interests. Reksopuro’s research shows that these dynamics are highly localized, with outcomes depending heavily on the strength of community organizing and the responsiveness of local officials.
The map also shines a light on the role of AI itself. Reksopuro used Claude, an AI assistant, to automate the update process. This is fitting, because the explosion of AI has been a key driver of data center demand. Training large language models and running inference at scale require enormous computational power, which in turn requires more data centers. Tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have announced massive capital expenditure plans for 2025 and beyond, adding tens of gigawatts of new capacity. The environmental footprint of these facilities is now a central concern for policymakers and activists alike.
Reksopuro emphasizes that her goal is not to demonize data centers, but to inform the public. “I think that knowledge is power,” she said. “If you know what’s coming, you can have a say in how it affects your community.” The map is designed to be accessible to people of all ages, with simple navigation and clear icons. It categorizes data centers by status (under construction, operating, proposed) and color-codes policy actions (supportive, neutral, opposed). This allows users to quickly see the landscape in their region.
As of May 2026, the map has logged over 1,200 data center sites and 800 policy actions worldwide. It has been featured in local news outlets and used by grassroots organizations to advocate for stronger regulations. Reksopuro plans to keep the map updated after she graduates, and she hopes it will serve as a model for citizen-led monitoring of industrial infrastructure. “This is the kind of transparency that should be standard,” she said. “Not just for data centers, but for any large-scale project that affects people’s lives.”
The story of data centers is still unfolding. As AI continues to advance and digitization deepens, the demand for computing power will only grow. How societies balance the benefits of technology with the costs of its infrastructure will shape the future of both the digital and physical worlds. Reksopuro’s map is a small but powerful tool for navigating that balance—one click at a time.
Source: The Verge News