Artificial Intelligence is set to fundamentally change our lives… how we work, how we raise our children, and how our country is run. Humans First is a conservative social movement that is dedicated to ensuring that the future of AI is in the hands of everyday people…
— from the Humans First website, July 2026.
Humans First, co-founded by former Tea Party leader Amy Kremer, directed the first coordinated U.S. day of data-center protests at 125 locations on July 18. Co-founder Kremer frames ‘data centers’ as a defining issue in November’s midterm elections and the 2028 presidential race.
We know that many people are concerned about the development of data centers, including the elected officials serving in numerous state legislatures. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the following map from DataCenterBans.com… which may or may not have been created using AI…
This map purportedly shows the U.S. states — in red — where elected leaders have approved bans or moratoriums (10 states)… and in orange, where legislation is advancing (8 states)… and in blue, where discussions are underway (16 states)… and in gray, where nothing much is happening yet (8 states)… and in green, where officials have put in place incentives or other policies to attract data centers (8 states.)
I will note that other maps I found online show conflicting information. That is to say, even though this is all presumably public information, different website are displaying conflicting information about data centers.
For example…
From a Georgia Institute of Technology report:
There are more than 2,500 data centers, either active or under construction, across the United States.
From the Pew Research Center:
The United States has more than 3,000 operational data centers, and that number is expected to grow substantially in the years ahead. More than 1,500 new data centers are in various stages of development nationwide…
From C-C Wave Tech:
There are over 5,400 data centers in the United States, the most of any country in the world…
It seems that, the more easily humans can access information through our amazing Internet communication systems, the more likely the information is to be unreliable.
Clearly, even the people who claim to know, don’t know how many data centers we already have, nor can we be certain how many are currently under construction or in the planning stages.
Nor can I discover a conclusive number of state or local governments that have banned data centers or instituted moratoriums. It would appear, however, from the various numbers being tossed around, that the U.S. is home to over 50% of all the data centers in the world, possibly having more data centers already than all other nations combined.
While sources give various number of U.S. data centers (between 2,500 and 5,400?) other sources give (equally unreliable?) numbers for other nations. For example:
UK: 555
Germany: 535
France: 395
China: 370
India: 295
Russia: 185
North Korea: 1
How these populated countries can even function economically with, typically, less than 10% of the data centers we have in the U.S. has not been fully explained. But my personal suspicion is: “The U.S. already has way more data centers than it actually needs.”
My wife Clarissa and I were invited to travel to Taiwan many years ago, to participate in an international art project around indigenous people’s rights. We spent a couple of weeks in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei City, and we were puzzled by the amazing number of high-rise luxury apartment buildings under construction. Sure, Taiwan had a growing population… but really, who was going to live in all these new luxury apartments?
The explanation was, “No one.”
Turns out, Taiwan’s real estate market was maxxed out. Almost no property was for sale. So developers were creating luxury apartments in downtown Taipei City that no one was ever expected to live in… just so they could be bought and sold by real estate investors, and be financed by the financial industry.
Didn’t make any sense — if we’re talking about ‘common sense’ — but so much of what happens in the world is driven by crazy investment and development schemes. So, with that in mind, it did make sense.
I have to wonder if that’s the same thing going on in America. There are a few sensible reason for investing in real estate here, but one good reason is: that it will be the site for a data center. No one is building factories, or shopping malls, or office buildings, or anything practical in America. So why not build out data centers that we don’t actually need? And thus give the real estate, construction, and financial industries reasons to turn a profit in an economy where, maybe, nothing much else is happening?
Thus, we can consider the temporary moratorium on data centers, approved unanimously by the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners on June 16.
From the resolution, which covers development outside the boundaries of the Pagosa Springs municipal limits:
…WHEREAS, data center facilities can have significant impacts on infrastructure, including demands on electrical power, water supply, telecommunications networks, and transportation systems, as well as potential impacts on surrounding land uses, natural resources, risk of wildfires, challenges of recruiting and retaining employees and workforce housing, public services, and the character of the community; and
WHEREAS, the Board is concerned about the potential land use and resource-intensive impacts to the County from Data Center Facilities; and
WHEREAS, the Archuleta County Land Use Code does not currently contain specific regulations, standards, or definitions addressing the unique characteristics and impacts of data center facilities; and…
…NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF THE COUNTY OF ARCHULETA, STATE OF COLORADO THAT:
Archuleta County shall not accept applications or engage in pre-submittal activities for data center facilities, including but not limited to planning applications, building permits, engineering permits, or other development applications related to data center facilities, shall be accepted or processed by the Archuleta County Planning and Community Development Department…
…The Board hereby enacts a six-month temporary moratorium (“Moratorium”) on processing applications for Data Center Facilities located in all of unincorporated Archuleta County. The Moratorium shall end on December 15, 2026, unless terminated or extended by a resolution of the Board…
…The Board of County Commissioners hereby finds and declares that this resolution is necessary for the preservation and furtherance of the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Archuleta County…
I’m pretty sure this resolution does not apply, however, to the 14% of Archuleta County owned and administered by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe.
Would it apply to the 49% of the county located in the National Forest? …In today’s political environment?
Read Part Three… tomorrow…