Patty Spillman 和 Jen Belt 驾车穿过俄亥俄州格罗夫城的郊区，勾勒出她们数月来抗争的战线。透过 Belt 的蓝色克莱斯勒小型货车车窗，Spillman 指出一处拟建的 310 英亩（约 125.5 公顷）数据中心园区的精确边界。她特别指出了变电站和高耸的输电线塔，并讲述了邻居们收到德克萨斯州公司 Headwaters Site Development 收购土地要约的个人经历；该公司提议在距哥伦布市约 10 英里（约 16 公里）的这片乡村农田上建设云计算存储设施。
Patty Spillman and Jen Belt drive through the outskirts of Grove City, Ohio, mapping the battle lines of a war they’ve waged for months. Pointing out the window of Belt’s blue Chrysler mini-van, Spillman notes the precise borders of a proposed 310-acre data-center campus. She singles out the electrical substation and towering power lines, and recounts the personal histories of neighbors who got offers to sell their land to Headwaters Site Development, the Texas-based company proposing to construct a cloud-computing storage facility on this patch of rural farmland about 10 miles outside Columbus.
在干枯的玉米秸秆地和矮小的大豆行之间，一些农民在自家草坪上竖起了“拒绝数据中心”的标语牌。
In between fields of drying corn-stalks and short rows of soybeans, some farmers have planted “no data center” signs on their lawns.
Spillman 那座拥有 165 年历史的农场就坐落在拟建综合体对面街道上。这位说话轻声细语、已退休的校车司机 Spillman，现年 63 岁，是共和党人，曾三次投票给唐纳德·特朗普总统。51 岁的 Belt 是一位艺术家兼营销承包商，属于民主党人。数月来，她们共同领导一个名为“保护格罗夫城”的组织，动员社区力量阻挠这座拟建数据中心。
Spillman’s 165-year-old farm sits across the street from the proposed complex. A soft-spoken retired bus driver, Spillman, 63, is a Republican who voted for President Donald Trump three times. Belt, a 51-year-old artist and marketing contractor, is a Democrat. For months, they’ve co-led a group called Protect Grove City, which mobilized a community effort to thwart the proposed data center.
居民们的担忧多种多样：用水量、噪音与环境问题、能源成本，以及笼罩项目的保密氛围。“这是我们的社区。如果我们不想让你们来，怎么办？”Spillman 说，她的岳母曾拒绝 Headwaters 开出的高于市场价的要约——约 150 万美元购买 30 英亩（约 12.1 公顷）土地。
The residents’ concerns are legion: water usage, noise and environmental concerns, energy costs, the cloak of secrecy hanging over the project. “This is our community. What if we don’t want you here?” says Spillman, whose mother-in-law turned down an above-market offer from Headwaters of around $1.5 million for 30 acres of land.
社区的抵制促使格罗夫城议会通过了一项为期一年的数据中心建设暂停令。11月，格罗夫城居民将就一项提案进行投票，该提案将进一步规定，所有大型开发项目均须经选民批准。这一问题颠覆了这个拥有45,180名居民的保守社区原本亲密的政治生态。社区Facebook群组里充斥着争吵，愤怒的居民挤满了议会会议，活动人士提交了信息自由请求，寻求关于市政府官员就公投进行沟通的答案。
Community pushback prompted the Grove City council to pass a yearlong moratorium on data-center construction. In November, Grove City residents will vote on a proposal to go even further, making all large developments subject to voter approval. The issue has upended the intimate politics of this conservative community of 45,180. Community Facebook groups are filled with bickering, angry residents have filled council meetings, and activists filed freedom-of-information requests seeking answers about city officials’ communications about the referendum.
格罗夫城的长任市长理查德·“艾克”·斯泰奇和其他地方领导人一直在对抗这些努力，称限制开发的投票倡议将损害经济增长。
Grove City’s longtime mayor, Richard “Ike” Stage, and other local leaders have fought against their efforts, saying the ballot initiative to restrict development would hurt economic growth.
对数据中心的强烈反对情绪正在全州蔓延。俄亥俄州拥有约200个数据中心，使其成为全美最大的枢纽之一。在特朗普时代转为红州的这个前摇摆州，共和党人承认，针对数据中心的政治反对浪潮为俄亥俄州民主党人在即将到来的中期选举中创造了政治机遇。
The fervor against data centers is spreading across the state. Ohio has some 200 data centers, making it one of the biggest hubs in the country. In a former swing state that went red in the Trump era, Republicans admit the groundswell of political opposition to data centers has created a political opening for Ohio Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections.
“我是再典型不过的共和党人了，但今年对俄亥俄州的共和党人来说将是艰难的一年，”尼克·欧文斯说。他曾任县共和党主席，并在2024年共和党全国代表大会上担任特朗普的代表。欧文斯目前正与反数据中心组织“保护俄亥俄”合作。“我现在就能拿起手机，给来自全州10个不同角落、10到12个人发短信或打电话，他们有着各不相同的政治背景，各不相同的社经背景，”欧文斯说，“因为我们在这一点上团结一致。”
“I’m as Republican as they get, but it’s going to be a tough year for Republicans in the state of Ohio,” says Nick Owens, a former county GOP chair and Trump delegate at the 2024 Republican National Convention. Owens is now working with the anti-data-center group Conserve Ohio. “I can get on my phone right now and text or call 10 or 12 people from 10 different corners of the state, from all different political backgrounds, from all different socio-economic backgrounds,” Owens says, “because we’re all united about this.”
盖洛普5月发布的一项全国民调发现，超过70%的选民反对在自己所在地区建设AI数据中心。在俄亥俄州，普通家庭的电费在过去一年上涨了约15%，过去十年上涨了超过66%，当地的情绪更为负面。鲍林格林州立大学9月的一项调查发现，近80%的俄亥俄州人支持暂停建设数据中心。据报道，俄亥俄州已有100多个地方政府颁布了数据中心暂停令；11月，至少10个地方将就地把数据中心禁令写入本地宪章进行投票，另有2个地方将决定是否罢免那些达成了数据中心协议的市长。
A national Gallup poll published in May found that more than 70% of voters oppose building an AI data center in their area. In Ohio, where the average household’s electric bill climbed some 15% in the past year and more than 66% over the past decade, the sentiment is even more negative. A September survey by Bowling Green State University found that nearly 80% of Ohioans support a moratorium on data centers. More than 100 local governments in Ohio have reportedly enacted data-center moratoriums; in November, at least 10 will vote on adding a data-center ban to their charters, while two others will decide whether to recall mayors who cut data-center deals.
在反对者眼中，这些设施——以及支持它们的强大AI产业——已经成为对其安全、就业、钱包和生活质量的攻击的象征。
In the eyes of opponents, the facilities—and the powerful AI industry that backs them—have come to represent an attack on their safety, jobs, pocketbooks, and quality of life.
目前尚不清楚这个问题在11月的选举中会有多大影响力。选民表示，数据中心本身并不是全国竞选中的顶级议题——皮尤研究中心最近的一项调查显示，经济、民主的未来、医疗保健、教育和移民位列前五。但民主党候选人试图将数据中心与其中许多主题联系起来。他们承诺通过限制数据中心来打击高昂的电费，以缓解生活成本担忧；誓言通过打击硅谷为建建设施而进行的暗箱交易来加强民主；将人工智能公司描绘成不平等经济中的幕后操纵者；并把政治对手刻画成寻求讨好强大企业的腐败领导人。
It’s not clear just how potent the issue will be at the polls in November. By themselves, data centers don’t rank as a top-tier national campaign issue, according to voters—in a recent Pew Research Center survey, the economy, the future of democracy, health care, education, and immigration made up the top five. But Democratic candidates have sought to connect data centers to many of those themes. They’re promising to ease affordability concerns by cracking down on high electricity bills through data-center restrictions, pledging to strengthen democracy by fighting Silicon Valley’s opaque deals to get facilities built, casting AI companies as puppet masters in an unequal economy, and painting their political rivals as corrupt leaders seeking to curry favor from powerful companies.
据分析公司AdImpact统计，本选举周期已有1.376亿美元用于播放有关数据中心的广告，其中民主党人占这一估算支出的77%。
This election cycle, $137.6 million has been spent on broadcast ads about data centers, with Democrats making up 77% of that estimated spending, according to the analytics firm AdImpact.
一些民主党人认为，数据中心可能成为势均力敌选战中的决定性问题，尤其是在得克萨斯州、艾奥瓦州和俄亥俄州等红州。在这些州及其他地区，选民告诉民调机构，他们在这个问题上更信任民主党。总统唐纳德·特朗普将自己定位为该行业最大的支持者之一，并嘲讽数据中心的反对者是“落后又贫穷”。加州大学洛杉矶分校政治学教授梅根·马林表示，这波民粹主义愤怒“已成为当下唯一能让美国人团结起来的事情”。
Some Democrats believe data centers could be a decisive issue in tight races, especially in red states like Texas, Iowa, and Ohio. In those states and others, voters have told pollsters they trust Democrats more on the issue. President Donald Trump has positioned himself as one of the industry’s biggest champions, deriding opponents of data centers as “backwards and poor.”
“它们与一些在美国政治中正变得真正重要的更大主题相联系——围绕生活可负担性、围绕能源可负担性、围绕对人工智能的怀疑与不安，以及围绕民粹主义对财富积累和科技巨头的抵制。”10月初，俄亥俄州第15国会选区的民主党候选人唐·伦纳德来到皮夸的施米德拉普免费学校图书馆。这个空间用假花做了秋季装饰，挤满了活动人士和社区领袖，他们准备详细讲述最新的数据中心争议。
The wave of populist anger has “become the one thing that unites Americans right now,” says Megan Mullin, a UCLA political-science professor. “They connect to bigger themes that are becoming really important in American politics—around affordability, around energy affordability, around suspicion and discomfort about AI, about populist resistance to the accumulation of wealth and tech titans.”
Meta一直在快速建设其数据中心基础设施，以推动其人工智能发展，并计划在该地区建造一个耗资10亿美元的园区。根据城市文件和新闻报道，该公司去年秘密敲定了这笔交易，使用了一家私人有限责任公司，并与当地官员签署了保密协议。在Meta被曝出是该数据中心背后的公司后，这家社交媒体巨头和皮夸政府官员表示，该项目将为该地区带来经济投资。Meta在一份声明中告诉《时代》周刊，公司正在审查其使用保密协议的情况。
In early October, Don Leonard, the Democratic candidate in Ohio’s 15th Congressional District, arrives at the Schmidlapp Free School Library in Piqua. The space is decorated for fall with artificial flowers, and filled with activists and community leaders ready to detail the latest data-center controversy.
Leonard 听到了来自 42 岁的 Alisha Lange 的反馈，后者担心自家井水受到污染。Lange 是一名注册共和党人，她是对该项目的保密性以及市政府在赢得 Meta 业务后向多名市政府官员发放 3000 美元奖金的做法感到愤怒的居民之一。作为回应，愤怒的居民成功请愿，将一项旨在罢免 Piqua 市长和其他民选官员的措施列入 11 月的选票。
Meta, which has been rapidly building out its data-center infrastructure to fuel its AI push, made plans to erect a $1 billion campus in the area. The company hashed out the deal in secret last year, according to city documents and news reports, using a private LLC and nondisclosure agreements with local officials. After Meta was outed as the company behind the data center, the social media giant and Piqua government officials said the project would bring economic investment to the region. In a statement, Meta told TIME the company is reviewing its use of nondisclosure agreements.
前俄亥俄州立大学城市与区域规划教授伦纳德，现年48岁，留着短胡茬，说话语速缓慢、不事矫饰。通常情况下，一位进步派候选人在过去15年由共和党把持的国会选区里很难有竞争力。现任议员、前煤炭行业游说者迈克·凯里两年前以13个百分点的优势获胜。但到伦纳德在5月赢得初选时，该选区（包括格罗夫城）的居民已因数据中心问题愤怒不已。
Leonard heard from Alisha Lange, 42, who worried about contamination of her well water. Lange, a registered Republican, was among those angered by the secrecy surrounding the project and revelations that several city officials had been awarded $3,000 bonuses by the city after winning Meta’s business.
伦纳德推动团队在民调中增加一个关于数据中心的问题。结果显示，第15选区70%以上的倾向性选民希望对数据中心的选址和运营拥有更大的话语权。“如果我们要以此为竞选议题，就必须用定量数据证实我们从倾听选民那里了解到的情况，”伦纳德在哥伦布市一个现代化联合办公空间接受采访时解释道，“那就是数据中心目前是俄亥俄中部最具两党共识的议题之一。”
In response, outraged residents successfully petitioned to add a measure to the November ballot designed to recall Piqua’s mayor and other elected officials.
伦纳德把数据中心视为“掠夺性资本主义的吉祥物”，迫使社区承担电费上涨和环境威胁，而当地景观却被远在天边的大公司重塑。他说，这些项目加剧了居民的焦虑——他们眼睁睁看着邻居因外包失去稳定的工厂工作，怀疑自己将在人工智能驱动的经济中再次成为输家。“有一种感觉，仿佛我们连上一场革命——全球化——都没能驾驭，现在他们又把另一场革命强加给我们，”伦纳德说，“他们在我们自家后院搞建设，正在冲击我们的生活方式。”这股反弹能否足以让伦纳德在一个稳固的共和党选区具备竞争力，目前尚不清楚。
A former city and regional planning professor at The Ohio State University, Leonard, 48, sports a stubbly beard and speaks with a deliberate unpretentiousness. Normally, a progressive candidate wouldn’t stand much of a shot in a congressional district that’s been represented by Republicans for the past 15 years. The incumbent, former coal-industry lobbyist Mike Carey, won by 13 points two years ago. But by the time Leonard won the primary in May, residents in the district, which includes Grove City, were aflame over data centers. Leonard pushed his team to add a data-center question to their polling. They found more than 70% of likely voters in the 15th District wanted greater say over where data centers are located and how they operate. “If we were going to message on it, we had to confirm quantitatively what we knew from listening to the constituents,” Leonard explains in an interview at a modern co-working space in Columbus. “Which is that data centers are one of the most bipartisan issues in Central Ohio right now.”
这场竞选中没有非党派民意调查，也没有公开辩论，根据竞选资金申报文件，凯里在筹款方面占据明显优势，筹得400万美元，而莱纳德仅为120万美元，尽管最近针对莱纳德的支出激增，显示共和党可能略感紧张。但在俄亥俄州的其他竞选中，民主党看到了明确的机会。
Leonard sees data centers as “the mascot for predatory capitalism,” forcing communities to absorb increased electricity costs and environmental threats as their local landscapes are remade by huge companies based far away. He says the developments have exacerbated the anxieties of residents who watched neighbors lose solid factory jobs to outsourcing and suspect they’ll once again be the losers in an AI-driven economy. “There’s a feeling like we didn’t even govern the last revolution—globalization—and now they’re hoisting another one on us,” Leonard says. “They’re doing it in our backyard. They’re attacking our way of life.”It’s not clear whether the backlash will be enough to catapult Leonard into contention in a solidly Republican district. There has been no non-partisan polling in the race, nor any public debates, and Carey holds a clear fundraising advantage, raking in $4 million to Leonard’s $1.2 million, according to campaign filings, though a recent influx of spending against Leonard is a sign Republicans may be a little nervous.
在一个秋高气爽的日子里，谢罗德·布朗在富兰克林县一家露天购物中心外的小型集会上拿起了麦克风。他开场先谈经济不平等，这些论点在他代表俄亥俄州进入参议院的18年里，任何时候都可以用来打动这群民主党组织者和选民。但随后布朗话锋一转，抛出一句攻击性言论——这话哪怕在一年前说出来，可能都会反响平平。
“这些数据中心如今落户俄亥俄州，都得拜乔恩·赫斯特德所赐，”布朗这样评价他的共和党对手。“它们进驻社区，大口吞占土地，大量消耗水资源。然后还能拿到巨额税收减免。”
But in other races in Ohio, Democrats spy a clear opportunity.
在华盛顿连任三届之后，布朗于2024年落选，那一年特朗普第三次赢下俄亥俄州。他今年谋求东山再起的核心议题一直是数据中心问题。在竞选演讲、社交媒体帖子和铺天盖地的电视广告中，布朗指责赫斯特德在担任副州长期间推动了该州数据中心的扩张。据俄亥俄州商会的一份报告，2017年至2024年间，数据中心获得了约25亿美元的激励，包括销售税和房产税减免。
On a crisp fall day, Sherrod Brown takes the microphone during a small rally outside a Franklin County strip mall. He begins with talking points about economic inequality that he could have fed this crowd of Democratic organizers and voters at any point during his 18 years representing the state in the Senate.
（该报告还估计，这些数据中心为州财政带来的收入是激励金额的两倍。）当年，赫斯特德和两党的其他政治领导人一样，常常把谷歌和亚马逊等建设了庞大园区的科技公司誉为俄亥俄州经济的助推力。赫斯特德竞选发言人艾米·纳托斯称布朗的批评是虚伪的，并指出这位前参议员本人曾在2015年称赞过亚马逊云服务在俄亥俄州的数据中心项目，称其为“好消息”。
But then Brown pivots to an attack line that might have landed with a thud even a year ago. “These data centers are in Ohio now thanks to Jon Husted,” Brown says of his Republican opponent.
如今赫斯特德在这个问题上处于守势，他提出了一项参议院法案，旨在让数据中心为电力系统升级买单，但该法案最终被民主党人阻止。他表示，数据中心应该由地方决定。民调显示，这场选情势均力敌。
“They come into communities. They gulp up the land. They swallow the water. Then they get these huge tax breaks.”
但《纽约/锡耶纳》近期的一项民调发现，俄亥俄州是五个偏右翼州之一——另外四个是阿拉斯加、艾奥瓦、堪萨斯和得克萨斯——民主党人在这些州的参议院竞选中表现超出预期，部分原因是选民表示他们认为民主党候选人会在数据中心问题上做得更好。
After three terms in Washington, Brown was defeated in 2024, when Trump won Ohio for the third straight time. The cornerstone of his comeback bid this year has been the data-center issue. In stump speeches, social media posts, and s blaring across television, Brown blames Husted for the role he played as lieutenant governor in fostering data-center growth in the state, which gave data centers an estimated $2.5 billion in incentives, including breaks on sales and property taxes, from 2017 to 2024, according to a report by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. (The report also estimates that the centers brought in twice as much in revenue to the state’s coffers.) Back then, Husted, like other political leaders in both parties, often celebrated tech companies like Google and Amazon, which built the sprawling campuses, as a boost to Ohio’s economy. Husted campaign spokesperson Amy Natoce called Brown’s critiques hypocritical, noting that in 2015 the former Senator himself praised an Amazon Web Services data-center project in Ohio, calling it “great news.”Now Husted is playing defense on the issue, sponsoring a Senate bill designed to get data centers to pay for electrical-system upgrades that was ultimately blocked by Democrats. Data centers should be a local decision, he says. Polls show the race as a toss-up. But a recent New York /Siena poll found that Ohio was one of five right-leaning states—Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, and Texas are the others—where Democrats are outperforming expectations in Senate races, in part because voters said they thought the Democratic candidate would do a better job on data centers.
民主党急于利用这一优势。俄亥俄州州长民主党候选人艾米·阿克顿医生呼吁有条件暂停数据中心，直到它们满足某些要求，例如自行承担电力成本、达到环境标准以及参与社区福利协议。共和党提名人维韦克·拉马斯瓦米希望强制超大规模数据中心承担电力成本并遵守空气和水质标准。阿克顿抨击拉马斯瓦米未承诺出售其在科技和人工智能股票上的投资，称这些持股构成利益冲突。
The party is eager to press that advantage. Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor, has called for a conditional moratorium on data centers until they meet certain requirements, such as covering the cost of their own electricity, meeting environmental standards, and participating in community-benefit agreements. Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee, wants to force hyperscale data centers to cover electricity costs and abide by air- and water-quality standards. Acton has assailed Ramaswamy for not committing to selling off his investments in tech and AI stocks, calling these holdings a conflict of interest.
类似的模式正在其他州上演。在得克萨斯州，民主党参议院提名人詹姆斯·塔拉里科和他的共和党对手肯·帕克斯顿都提出了对数据中心更严格的限制，并互相指责对方得到与科技界结盟的捐赠者的支持。该州共和党州长格雷格·阿博特自身也陷入了一场出人意料胶着的选战，他已对新建数据中心实施临时暂停，直到审计完成。在艾奥瓦州，数据中心一直是民主党参议院提名人乔什·图雷克与共和党提名人阿什利·欣森之间竞选的焦点，图雷克提出限制措施，欣森则强调地方管控的必要性。
A similar pattern is playing out in other states. In Texas, both Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico and his Republican opponent Ken Paxton have proposed tighter restrictions on data centers and accused each other of being supported by tech-aligned donors. The state’s Republican governor Greg Abbott, who is locked in a surprisingly tight race of his own, has imposed a temporary moratorium on new data centers until an audit is complete. In Iowa, data centers have been a flash point in the race between Democratic Senate nominee Josh Turek and Republican nominee Ashley Hinson, with Turek proposing restrictions and Hinson emphasizing the need for local control.
Ike Stage 于 1988 年首次当选 Grove City 市长。这位退休银行家曾协助建立当地商会，他将多年来开发商源源不断来电咨询的原因归结为土地价格相对低廉、地理位置便利以及对商业友好的环境。医疗制造商 American Nitrile 等企业已入驻，此外还有三家医院和两个科研设施落户。“没多少城市能这么说，”Stage 在市政厅接受采访时表示，墙上挂着该地区色彩鲜艳的地图。
Ike Stage first became the mayor of Grove City in 1988. A retired banker who helped set up the local chamber of commerce, he credits cheapish land, a convenient location, and a business-friendly climate for the steady stream of calls he’s fielded from developers over the years. Companies like medical manufacturer American Nitrile have moved in, along with three hospitals and two scientific-research facilities. “Not many cities can say that,” Stage says in an interview at city hall, where brightly colored maps of the area adorn the walls.
Stage 期望 Grove City 进一步发展。2018 年，该市通过了一项愿景规划，内容包括改善交通选择、增加公园以及推进混合用途开发。官员们还看中了 9000 多英亩的农业用地和空置土地，认为这些土地可转为“轻工业式开发”。七年后，由前谷歌数据中心基础设施负责人 Michael Lebow 创立的 Headwaters Site Development 产生了类似想法。
Stage has aspirations for Grove City to grow further. In 2018, it adopted a vision that included better transportation options, more parks, and mixed-use developments. Officials also eyed more than 9,000 acres of agricultural and vacant land they thought could be turned into “light industrial-style development.”Seven years later, Headwaters Site Development, founded by former Google data-center infrastructure leader Michael Lebow, had a similar thought.
该公司联系了 Grove City 边界以南一处农村地区的地主。其中一处宅基地属于 Patty Spillman 家庭，他们拒绝了交易。“我们大多数人都拒绝了，”Spillman 说。但并非所有人都拒绝。到今年春天，Headwaters 已找到足够多愿意出售的房主，拼凑出了所需土地。
It contacted property owners in a rural area just south of Grove City’s limits. One of the homesteads belonged to Patty Spillman’s family, which rejected the deal. “Most of us turned them down,” Spillman says. But not all. By this spring, Headwaters had found enough homeowners willing to sell to cobble together the necessary land.
4月，Headwaters公司代表在当地一家食品银行举办的两场信息宣讲会上，向当地居民推介了他们所谓的“枫树项目”。Headwaters表示，计划将这项耗资69亿美元的项目出售给一家未透露名称的科技公司，并承诺支持对社区友好的分区要求，这些要求将由买方承担，例如限高100英尺（约30.5米）、设置遮挡绿化带，以及噪音水平不超过洗碗机。
During two information sessions at a local food bank in April, Headwaters representatives pitched locals on what they called Project Maple. Headwaters says it plans to sell the $6.9 billion project to an unidentified tech company, and pledged to support community-friendly zoning requirements that would be assumed by the buyer, such as a 100-ft. height limit, concealing landscaping, and noise levels that aren’t louder than a dishwasher.
Headwaters称，该项目将带来250个长期就业岗位，自行承担能源成本，并采取预防措施将用水量控制在低位。但据倡导者透露，Headwaters拒绝透露最终将收购该设施的科技公司名称，令人不安。“他们就是绕着不给我们任何直接的回答，”Jen Belt回忆道，“很多人气愤地离开了。”愤怒激励了活动人士。Belt发起了一份请愿书，呼吁市议会驳回任何即将到来的数据中心申请。
Headwaters says the project would bring 250 permanent jobs, pay for its own energy costs, and take precautions to keep water usage low. But according to advocates, Head-waters’ refusal to say which tech company would ultimately buy the facility was unnerving. “They just skirted around giving us straight answers about anything,” Jen Belt recalls. “A lot of people left mad.”The anger emboldened the activists. Belt circulated a petition calling for the city council to reject any upcoming data-center applications.
该组织在个人社交媒体页面以及热门Facebook群组上发布了关于此类设施的负面信息，并在拟建地点附近竖起了“反对数据中心”的标语牌。
The group posted negative information about the facilities on their personal social media pages, as well as in popular Facebook groups, and put up no data centers signs near the proposed site.
下个月，格罗夫城市议员穆罕默德·奥马尔（Mohamed Omar，26岁）宣布，他正在起草立法，对当地数据中心实施为期12个月的暂停令。Headwaters公司回复了一封致市议会成员的信，辩称此类暂停令可能侵犯其正当程序权利。（勒博表示，该公司没有起诉计划。）然而，这种隐含的法律威胁在暂停令表决前夕加剧了社区对该项目的抵制。
The following month, Grove City councilman Mohamed Omar, 26, announced he was working on legislation to impose a 12-month moratorium on local data centers. Headwaters responded by sending a letter to city council members, arguing that such a moratorium could violate its due process rights. (Lebow says the company has no plans to sue.) Yet the implied legal threat intensified the community pushback against the project on the eve of the moratorium vote.
6月，暂停令以6比1的票数通过。受此鼓舞，反数据中心组织“保护格罗夫城”（Protect Grove City）的倡导者们认为一年的暂停令还不够，于是起草了一项市政章程修正案，该章程的作用类似于治理宪法。修正案将禁止市政府批准占地至少50英亩、峰值用电量超过20兆瓦或日耗水量超过50万加仑的开发项目的分区申请，除非该项目在公投中获得多数选民支持。
In June, the moratorium passed 6-1. Emboldened, the anti-data-center advocates with Protect Grove City decided the one-year moratorium wasn’t enough, and wrote a proposed amendment to the city’s charter, which functions like a governing constitution. It would prohibit the city from approving zoning applications for developments that occupy at least 50 acres, use more than 20 megawatts of power at peak capacity, or consume more than 500,000 gallons of water per day unless a majority of voters have backed the project in a public referendum.
为了争取支持，他们在当地的农贸市场、公园和体育赛事现场拉票，请人们签署请愿书，以便将该措施列入11月的选票。几周内，他们便获得了足够的签名。
To drum up support, they canvassed local farmers’ markets, parks, and sporting events to ask people to sign a petition to put the measure on the ballot in November. Within a few weeks, they secured enough signatures.
根据《时代周刊》（TIME）获得的电子邮件，市政府官员紧张地关注着俄亥俄州乃至更广泛地区关于数据中心遭遇抵制的新闻报道。他们警告称，章程修正案不仅会阻碍Headwaters项目，还将从根本上改变任何未来开发协议的批准方式，并可能因施加过于繁重的程序，阻碍包括教堂、医院和学校在内的现有机构进行扩建。
City officials nervously tracked news coverage of the data-center backlash across Ohio and beyond, according to emails obtained by TIME. The charter amendment wouldn’t just inhibit the Headwaters project, they warned. It would fundamentally change how any future development deals are approved, and perhaps inhibit existing organizations, including churches, a hospital, and schools, from expanding by imposing overly burdensome processes.
批评者认为，居民已通过正常的城市审批流程拥有对即将到来的开发项目发表意见的机会。“这将影响商业，影响我们的学校，影响我们的税收，”在格罗夫城经营汽车经销商的70岁老人史蒂夫·方克（Steve Funk）说。
Critics contend residents already have opportunities to weigh in on upcoming developments through the normal city approval process. “It’s going to affect business. It’s going to affect our schools. It’s going to affect our taxes,” says Steve Funk, 70, who runs a car dealership in Grove City.
该市一直在向居民寄送邮件，解释该修正案可能产生的影响。居民们在 Facebook 群组中因该修正案陷入了激烈的个人争论。“情况很糟，”奥马尔说。“感觉这座城市几乎要分裂了。”
The city has been sending mailers to residents explaining the amendment’s potential effects. Residents have gotten into bitter personal disputes over the amendment in Facebook groups. “It’s bad,” says Omar. “It almost feels like the city is torn.”
斯泰奇认为，科技公司在宣传这些设施给当地社区带来的益处方面做得很差，任由居民对该行业的焦虑滋长蔓延。他将这种强烈反弹比作 19 世纪美国人对铁路扩张的恐惧，当时农村农民担心这项技术会对他们的牲畜产生影响。美国人最终习惯了火车。但斯泰奇也意识到，他在舆论方面处于劣势。斯泰奇明年将竞选连任。“我赢过的大多数选举都相当轻松，我已经经历过 11 次选举了，”他说。“但你永远、永远不要做那种想当然的假设。”
To Stage, tech companies have done a poor job trumpeting the benefits the facilities bring to local communities, allowing residents’ anxieties about the industry to flourish. He likens the backlash to the fears Americans had about railroad expansion during the 19th century, when rural farmers worried about the effect the technology might have on their livestock. Americans eventually got used to trains. But Stage also recognizes that he’s on the short side of public opinion. Stage is up for re-election next year. “I’ve won most elections pretty handily, and I’ve been through 11 of them,” he says. “But you never, never make that assumption.” —