In the United States, artificial intelligence has emerged as a major issue in the midterm elections on November 3. While the data centers essential to its operation multiply, they arouse more and more mistrust, rallying opponents from all sides united by the same ecological and economic concerns. Georgia, the leading American market for the construction of these data centers, is on the front lines of this fight.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 17:11

To display this YouTube content, it is necessary to authorize audience measurement and advertising cookies.

An extension in your browser appears to be blocking the loading of the video player. To be able to watch this content, you must disable or uninstall it.

On this beautiful autumn morning, Quilliam Barber looks out over his garden with a green lawn dotted with red and yellow leaves that have fallen from the tall trees. Only the song of a bird disturbs the silence of this corner of the Georgian countryside. Then this 67-year-old truck driver lets out a long sigh, overwhelmed.

“It’s terrible, it’s going to be right there,” he says, pointing with his hand to a vast area behind his garden. "It's very close to my house. And there's nothing I can do about it."

Just outside his house, a huge piece of land should soon be home to the Project Sail data center, billed as the largest in Coweta County, in the state of Georgia, in the southeast of the United States.

The announcement came in early 2025 and immediately made headlines due to the scale of the project. According to documents filed with county officials, this data center, with its 13 buildings and 45 hectares of space, will require approximately 900 megawatts of electricity and 34 million liters of water each day to operate. The project alone is estimated at 17 billion dollars (15 billion euros).

Standing next to her husband, Wilhemina Barber has no illusions. With a project of this magnitude on her doorstep, she knows that her daily life will radically change. “It’s very calm and peaceful here. We both love this place,” she says. “But if they put this right behind our house, it won’t be the same at all.”

A growing slingshot

About two miles from Quilliam and Wilhemina Barber's home, Ron Bockrath has become one of the opposition figures at the Sail Center. In his kitchen, a stack of posters sits on a sideboard. “Protect Coweta: No Data Center Here” can be read in large red letters.

In a few months, he set up several citizen groups, took legal action and even collected thousands of signatures for a petition, with a single objective: to make “Project Sail” fail.

An early ally of the tech giants, American President Donald Trump has been campaigning for several years to make the United States the leading power in artificial intelligence against China. But more and more, in rich or poor territories, rural, urban or peri-urban, citizens like Ron Bockrath are standing up against data centers, these large infrastructures which house the computer servers essential to its development.

According to a Gallup Institute poll published in May 2026, seven out of ten Americans would oppose the installation of a data center in their community. Among them, Republicans and Democrats alike - this subject being one of the rare ones to transcend traditional political divisions.

While the country already has more than 3,000 data centers, and more than 1,500 are planned, according to the Pew Research Center, the subject has emerged as one of the major themes of the campaign for the mid-term elections on November 3. And the revolt won the polls: 41 local referendums on the subject are planned during this election, according to the specialized site Ballotpedia.

These projects crystallize a range of concerns. Energy-intensive, data centers raise fears of an explosion in electricity prices and water shortages. Added to this are the harmful effects on the environment and global warming. All this, in a climate of distrust in the face of tech giants who are enriching themselves thanks to this new technology in the midst of a cost of living crisis.

See alsoThe expansion of data centers: always more water, electricity and space!

From rural area to industrial area

And Georgia, one of the states with the most data centers relative to its number of inhabitants - 94 are in operation while 119 are planned - has gradually found itself on the front line of this local battle.

At the entrance to Ron Bockrath's property, in Newnan, in western Coweta County, another sign mentions the cause that has occupied this 83-year-old retiree for months. “NO Industrial Zoning. NO Data Center” (“No to industrial zoning. No to the data center”), we can read.

This message refers to the reclassification, last April following a very close vote, of this area, long classified as a "rural conservation district", into an industrial zone. Concretely, it was the first, crucial step in setting up the Sail project.

Ron Bockrath had attended the county council, just before this vote, in a packed room crowded with local residents, activists and journalists. “Everyone was supposed to be able to express themselves, whether we were for or against,” he testifies. "But the authorities absolutely wanted to give equal speaking time to both camps. In theory, that's a good thing. Except that here, the entire local population was unanimous in opposing the project.

As a result, “only twenty minutes were given to the opposition, which is really not long given the scale of this project. I arrived almost two hours before the start of the meeting and I was not able to speak,” he regrets. “The authorities are supposed to give great importance to the opinions of residents, but we were not able to express ourselves. It may be legal, but morally, it is not acceptable.”

For their part, the authorities who voted for this change welcomed the result. “It was a no-brainer for the county,” Commissioner Alphonso Smith told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I am committing my political career to this.”

A representative of the project promoter, Prologis, a Fortune 500 company, for his part tried to calm the discontent, promising that this reclassification would transform the region and generate tax revenue, reported the local daily.

“Kilometres of traffic jams” for a petition

After this vote, several local initiatives were put in place to try to turn back the clock. Ron Bockrath, along with several neighbors including Quilliam Barber, quickly filed two appeals in a Coweta County court. Filed in May, these are currently taking their course in court.

At the same time, a citizen collective, Citizens for Rural Coweta, launched a so-called “home rule” petition. Under the Georgia Constitution, this allows residents to petition the county court to amend or repeal a resolution. In counties with more than 50,000 inhabitants, signatures of at least 10% of voters must be collected.

For several weeks, Ron Bockrath walked the roads of Georgia, knocking on doors to inform citizens of this initiative. At the same time, businesses opened their doors for signing sessions. The mobilization exceeded all expectations, says Ron Bockrath. “There were miles of traffic jams to come and sign these petitions,” he remembers with a smile.

To display this Instagram content, it is necessary to authorize audience measurement and advertising cookies.

On Friday, October 16, Citizens for Rural Coweta volunteers were finally able to file their petition with more than 14,800 signatures in the county court. The 10% threshold was reached. The judge now has 60 days to determine whether the petition is valid. If this is the case, he must call a new vote within 60 to 90 days.

The movement has thus transcended all political divisions, believes the activist. “To collect nearly 15,000 signatures from registered voters here, many had to be Republicans. And a certain number are surely Democrats,” he emphasizes. In any case, "it's not so much a political issue. It shouldn't be. It's a question of humanity."

“We can’t just give up.”

Despite this success, Ron Bockrath admits that he sometimes gets discouraged. But he feels he has no choice. “Someone has to do it,” he says. "We can't just give up. I don't think we want to see our country, or the world, for that matter, in such a state."

Among his main concerns, this retired researcher is particularly concerned about the massive quantities of water needed to cool systems in data centers. In Georgia, many homes already suffer from low water flow, and in Newton County, some can no longer drink tap water.

Added to this is concern linked to the climate. “If we continue to consume more and more electricity, to produce more and more heat, climate change will accelerate,” he continues.

“Another place to go”

If Georgia has seen data centers multiply at breakneck speed, this is largely due to tax breaks and reduced electricity rates granted to many projects under outgoing Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who has led the state since 2019.

But today, this also contributes to the anger of the population. While these companies benefit from advantageous rates, the cost of electricity for households has increased significantly. According to a Bloomberg analysis published last year, residents living near data centers pay up to 267% more per month for their electricity than they did five years ago.

“Governor Brian Kemp is very, very pro-business. I think he is so pro-business that he forgets the citizens,” says Ron Bockrath. "He can tout the tax revenues obtained from these infrastructures, but if citizens see the cost of their operation reflected in their electricity bills, how does that help them? It doesn't help them. It hurts them."

In this Republican stronghold, the octogenarian describes himself as independent and claims to have voted "for both camps" in the past, depending on the programs and the results of the candidates. If he refuses to say who he intends to vote for on November 3, he does not hesitate to say he is disappointed by the Republicans who have not contested certain policies of Donald Trump. "The Republicans didn't say, 'Hey, that's not good,' even though they should have," he said.

Looking at the back of his garden, Quilliam Barber is now considering moving if the Sail project sees the light of day. "I might have to leave. I feel bad. I love this place. I grew up there. I raised my family there. My children, my grandchildren, they all played in these woods," he confides. “But if the authorities made me an offer, then yes, I would leave.”

His wife listens to him in silence, her eyes fixed on the grass. “I would be sad because it would be like starting everything from scratch,” she says. “But we discussed it: if they offer us an amount that allows us to live, we will accept and we will find somewhere else to go.”

This article was adapted from English by Cyrielle Cabot. The original can be found here.

Keywords associated with the article

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.