Dear editor,

Data centers are a huge concern for thousands of Iowans. That’s what Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement has learned from a statewide member survey we did, along with meetings, phone calls and other conversations we’ve done over the past five months.

We know data centers gobble up our water, energy and farmland. And we also know they gobble up our tax dollars to the tune of billions each year through property tax abatements, sales tax exemptions and other subsidies.

The technology that data centers use may be new, but their underlying story has been around a long time: big corporations profit by extracting and over-using our finite resources, while offloading the costs onto taxpayers and our communities.

People are turning out in large numbers to tell their elected officials: No new data centers in Iowa! So far, nearly twenty Iowa counties have passed data center moratoriums. More are needed.

Analysts say the current AI data center expansion far exceeds what we need for our normal, day-to-day lives, which makes me wonder: Is this mostly about putting a lot more money in the pockets of Big Tech’s wealthy tycoons?

Let’s use some common sense and put a long pause on this expansion. Prudence will serve us well.