Citizen mobilization recently pushed a town in New Jersey to abandon a project to build a data center on its territory, a success that has become the symbol of a movement that is gaining momentum in the United States and is becoming a political issue.
Piles of rubble litter a vacant lot in New Brunswick, an hour’s drive from New York, bordered by a railway line but also by homes.
It is on this former automobile production site that the investment company Amzak Capital Management planned to establish a data center.
Nine days before a final vote by the city council in mid-February, residents learned of the project during a technical committee meeting and raised the alarm.
A video went viral, leaflets distributed notably on the campus of Rutgers University, which is located in New Brunswick, and on the big day, more than 300 people showed up to watch the vote in a room that could hold barely 80.
“Even before opening the session to questions from the public, they announced that the data center was going to be removed from the project,” says Ben Dziobek, founder of the environmental association Climate Revolution Action Network.
Data centers “are becoming an important part of our modern economies” because they are necessary for online services provided “to businesses, hospitals, universities and residents,” New Brunswick Mayor James Cahill commented to AFP.
“But at the same time, communities across the country are debating how to integrate them locally with, in mind, the energy consumption (of “data centers”), their environmental impact, the real estate footprint and the benefits for residents,” he added.
For Brandon Guillebeaux, a long-time resident of this town with a strong Hispanic representation, the account was not there.
“If it had brought thousands of jobs, it would have been worth it,” he said, “but we’re talking about a handful.”
Set a precedent
CJ, a 23-year-old resident who did not wish to give her last name, points out that the center would have been located in the middle of a working-class neighborhood, far from the offices, hospitals and university buildings of the more affluent center.
“People are calling us from all over the country to ask us: how did you do it?” confides Charlie Kratovil, Democratic candidate for mayor of New Brunswick and activist for the environmental association Food & Water Watch. “A year ago, this was not an issue.”
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has increased the need for data centers and dozens of projects are springing up all over the United States, in rural areas but also in cities.
The development of additional energy infrastructure is not keeping pace, contributing to a nearly 17 percent jump in New Jersey’s average electricity bill last year, according to a legislative report, more than in any other U.S. state.
At the beginning of March, seven large groups at the forefront of AI committed to the US government to offset the increase in their electricity needs through investments in new capacity.
According to a recent Quinnipiac University survey, 65% of Americans are against the idea of installing a data center in their community.
In 2025, Chandler (Arizona) or College Station (Texas) had already closed the door to the arrival of a “data center”, without having the resonance of the New Brunswick saga.
“I really hope it sets a precedent,” CJ said, “showing people that if they step up and publicly express their disagreement with these data centers, they have a chance” to stop them.
In the coming weeks, Maine could become the first state to decree a moratorium on the construction of these hangars which house thousands, even millions of electronic chips, the lifeblood of the internet and AI.
In New Jersey, the state with by far the highest density in the country, numerous bills are under study, notably that of Joe Danielsen, whose constituency includes New Brunswick.
When others, like Charlie Kratovil and Democratic figures Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez call for a global suspension, he calls for the imposition of specifications on the giants of remote computing (cloud).
“We know that these data centers are going to arrive,” adds Ben Dziobek. “We want feasibility studies, to know the impacts at the local level, and not to move forward at full speed.”
