Daviess County is the latest to implement a 12-month ban on the centers.
Gerry James, deputy director of the National Circle of Outdoors for All Campaign for the Sierra Club, said the caution is warranted, given the rapid growth in energy demand from generative artificial intelligence and the potential effects on natural resources.
“When you add quantum computing at high speed for everybody at the tip of your fingertips, and then you have the defense industry and commercial industry using it, that is where the energy consumption is,” James explained.
Moratoriums have been criticized by the data industry as anti-business, even as technology companies continue to pour billions of dollars into building the centers.
Kentucky residents said they have strong concerns about hyperscale data centers and their potential noise pollution, significant water use and high electricity consumption. The City Council in Cave City, near Mammoth Cave National Park, also passed a one-year moratorium last month after local leaders said a data center developer had approached them.
James pointed out data centers could put a huge strain on water resources and disrupt the region’s delicate ecosystem.
“We've been working a lot around Mammoth Cave,” James noted. “From my perspective, we really need to protect our waterways. We need to protect our land.”
There are also transparency concerns. In Boyd County, locals packed a convention center to criticize local officials for signing nondisclosure agreements with a data center developer that wants to build a massive operation in an industrial park.
