It touches energy prices, water, land, jobs, and the character of the places people call home. Americans care deeply about the outcomes of ballot initiatives tied to data centers, but they don’t all agree on what those outcomes should be.
For more than a century, The Rockefeller Foundation has been bringing people together around difficult questions like this one because we know good ideas can come from anywhere and from anyone. Our convenings and conversations have included economist Milton Friedman, United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and many more. The mix of participants is the point: the toughest challenges rarely yield to any one sector working alone, so we seek out, convene, and collaborate with unlikely partners.
That was the spirit behind a gathering we hosted this summer, which brought together community and civic organizations, environmental and energy advocates, workforce and economic development leaders, researchers, industry, and philanthropy to grapple with what the rapid growth of data centers means for the places where they’re built. Each brought different experiences, different priorities, and, at times, sharply different views on this issue. What they shared is a belief that the tough questions about these developments are better worked through together than fought out one project at a time, and that communities need a better way to assess what’s at stake.
That work must continue.
In the months since, participants have asked to continue this conversation with our support. We are not supporting any one position or solution, we are supporting an effort to bring stakeholders together to find paths forward. The need for solutions is urgent. Communities are making decisions about data center development right now, often on tight timelines, and these developments are increasingly concentrated in rural and economically distressed places where the stakes for families and local economies are highest.
Many people are worried about what data centers mean for their communities and their futures. Those concerns are real, and they deserve to be heard. We welcome that discourse as well as discussions with those who see this issue from many different angles.
Whatever the results across the country tonight, the questions on the ballot won’t be settled in a single election. They will be worked out over years, in town halls, statehouses, and community meetings across the country. The transparency, capacity, and agency communities bring to these decisions vary widely from place to place. Those conversations go better when people with different perspectives are talking with one another, not past one another. And those conversations go better when the people most affected have the information, expertise, and voice to decide for themselves. We’re committed to helping ensure they do.
