Pennsylvania Asylum Township resident Sue Corie speaks during a Bradford County board meeting about data center construction and land use.Bradford County, Pennsylvania amended its land use regulations to include a framework for any proposed data centers in the area.

Commissioners approved the amendment at a regular meeting earlier this month after hearing from residents. It was approved unanimously by all three county commissioners.

The county amended its Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (SALDO) to include data centers. SALDOs are the most common way land is divided and developed in the commonwealth.

Previous versions of the county’s SALDO do not include language that addresses the fast-growing business of data center construction and the needs of the county’s residents.

Asylum Township resident, Sue Corie, is in favor of the updates to the SALDO.

“We don't know what the impacts would be on the environment, the wildlife in the area, just our quality of life overall is absolutely devastating to me,” said Corie

Part of the land in the township that is now being proposed for a possible data center site is where Corie’s family has lived for five generations.

“I can't imagine not being able to go out and sit on my front porch and look across the field that the farmer has just plowed and planted in the evening, watching the deer come out and looking at the trees and the mountains, listening to that peacefulness, and to have that threatened, it just is beyond comprehension to me,” she said.

Read the rest here.

Yeah....I'm actually getting pretty cynical about the hostility over data centers.

I’m beginning to have concerns about how much of the antagonism is originating from Chinese bots on social media.

 

Does it seem plausible to anyone else that a large malevolent entity like China that dominates an industry with growing control and economic power might be willing to manufacture viral outrage with the goal of discouraging competition?

17 minutes ago, MsKreed said:

Does it seem plausible to anyone else that a large malevolent entity like China that dominates an industry with growing control and economic power might be willing to manufacture viral outrage with the goal of discouraging competition?

I’m increasingly against them as well as AI in general, but yes, it’s also plausible that the Chinese are at least fanning the flames if not driving it completely.

I’ve seen enough about people whose homes are subjected to never ending noise, rising electricity costs, and water consumption on top of being very against AI, I wouldn’t mind seeing data centers disappear. Not to mention selfishly how they’ve led to an astronomical increase in consumer electronics and parts directly affecting some of my hobbies, these AI companies can all burn for all I care.

21 minutes ago, Andy said:

I’ve seen enough about people whose homes are subjected to never ending noise, rising electricity costs, and water consumption on top of being very against AI, I wouldn’t mind seeing data centers disappear. Not to mention selfishly how they’ve led to an astronomical increase in consumer electronics and parts directly affecting some of my hobbies, these AI companies can all burn for all I care.

I don't disagree that AI is a scourge that I wish hadn't emerged. But, short of a meteor strike, growing reliance on data is here to stay. And measures to concentrate it overseas will only make things worse.

I just watched Bill Mahar’s latest episode where famed environmental activist Erin Brockovich was lamenting the “dangers” of data centers.

Erin proudly noted that her fight against these evil facilities has so much support that her followers’ activity is so heavy that it crashed the servers for her website. 

On April 27, 2026, Brockovich launched brockovichdatacenter.com, a crowd-sourced interactive map where residents can log AI data centers that are operational, under construction, or proposed near their homes. Traffic overwhelmed the server twice inside the first 72 hours.

 I think Mahar should have pressed her a little harder, but he did light-heartedly allude to the irony that her crusade against data centers requires very substantial utilization of.....data centers.

 

Meanwhile, another guest on the same show was discussing AI growth. He pointed out that, over a 20 month period, China’s global share of AI large language model (LLM) tokens grew from 8% to 60%

I didn’t find a source for the time period and figures he cited, but the trend he mentioned is undeniable.

It’s almost suicidal hypocrisy to ban the very product that you’re feeding increasing demand for China (and/or Russia) to have exclusive control over it.

 

Edited August 2Aug 2 by MsKreed