"Just a few months ago, potential 2028 presidential candidates - including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore - were bending over backwards to lure data centers, with offers of lavish tax breaks and other goodies. The projects seemed like no-brainers to many pols: They promised jobs, made building trade unions happy, took on China and pleased Silicon Valley execs. Now those Democrats are abruptly retreating - and vowing to protect voters from the consequences of the AI revolution."
"The reason for the pivot: From MAGA country to liberal Prince George's County in Maryland's D.C. suburbs, Americans are increasingly blaming the power-sucking centers for high energy bills - and they're freaked out about AI's ability to eliminate jobs. Zoom in: Before the dawn of ChatGPT, Pritzker signed legislation in 2019 doling out tax breaks for data centers. AI took off and Chicago became one of the nation's biggest data-center hubs. But households' electricity bills went up, and some faulted data centers."
Prominent Democratic governors initially offered generous tax breaks and regulatory favors to attract data centers, citing jobs, union support, national-security signaling and tech investment. Rapid AI adoption increased data-center demand and concentrated facilities in places like Chicago and parts of Pennsylvania. Residents began attributing higher household electricity bills to data-center power consumption and expressed concern about AI-driven job losses. Governors responded by pausing incentives, calling for additional oversight, or softening prior pro–data-center policies. Notable actions include a proposed two-year moratorium on incentives in Illinois and calls for stricter expectations and oversight in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Read at Axios
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