Communities across the United States are showing they have real power in the debate over giant data centers, and that could be good news for local water supplies, electric grids, farmland, and household utility bills.

A new Heatmap Pro review found that at least 20 proposed data center projects were canceled following local opposition in the first three months of 2026, setting a record for cancellations. 

When announcing this review on X, author Robinson Meyer wrote, "The data center backlash isn't close to peaking."

The data center backlash isn't close to peaking.

At least 20 proposed data centers were cancelled following local opposition in Q1 2026, per new Heatmap Pro data.

That smashes last quarter's record of 12 canceled projects. The number of contested projects also hit an all-time… pic.twitter.com/EZlP65DfL5

— Robinson Meyer (@robinsonmeyer) May 7, 2026

Together, those shelved projects represented more than $41.7 billion in planned investment and at least 3.5 gigawatts of electricity demand.

One of the biggest examples was Sentinel Grove Technology Park, a proposed data center complex near Port St. Lucie, Florida, known as Project Jarvis. As Heatmap Pro reported, the facility was planned for former agricultural land and was projected to draw up to 1 gigawatt of electricity, roughly enough to power a midsize city.

The massive campus was immediately controversial. Developers tried to proactively address concerns by offering dedicated water facilities for the site and moving its 60-foot buildings back from the road so drivers would not see them. 

But the plan still ran into strong resistance. It lost a planning board vote in October, and then Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed AI regulations. The developers withdrew their land-use application in February.

And Florida is far from the only flashpoint.

According to Heatmap Pro, opposition to data center construction is growing from Georgia to Pennsylvania, with researchers logging roughly 100 new local fights in their database during the first three months of the year. 

Last year, about 25 projects were canceled nationwide after facing local resistance. Heatmap Pro said the U.S. is on pace to top that number in 2026 in just five months.

That trend matters because these projects can place enormous demands on local infrastructure. 

Massive data centers often need huge amounts of electricity to run servers and cooling systems as well as significant water resources. When those facilities are proposed near neighborhoods, farms, or already stressed power systems, residents can be left to worry about rising energy costs, water use, pollution, noise, land use, and strain on public resources.

There is also a larger, longer-lasting impact on the planet. 

When data center growth outpaces clean energy development and grid upgrades, utilities may lean harder on fossil fuel generation to meet demand. 

Slowing, reshaping, or relocating the most resource-intensive projects could give communities more time to demand cleaner power, better efficiency standards, and smarter siting decisions.

Artificial intelligence is a major part of this conversation because many new data centers are being built to support machine learning and other computing-heavy services, even though not every proposed site is exclusively for AI.

The technology can offer real benefits, including helping utilities forecast electricity demand, improving battery performance, and optimizing renewable energy systems. But those upsides come with risks: AI-linked data centers can consume vast amounts of power and water, and the technology itself also raises concerns around security, misuse, and unintended social consequences.

That is why this backlash is notable. It is not simply anti-technology. In many cases, it reflects communities who are asking for growth to be better planned, more transparent, and less harmful to the environment.

For residents who have felt steamrolled by rapid data center development in their communities, these findings send a clear message: Local voices are still shaping what gets built and where.

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