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Report highlights rural worries over data center development

A new report from the University of Illinois suggests rural Americans are concerned about the impact of data centers.

Mark White, clinical associate professor in the department of ag and consumer economics, says electricity costs were the leading concern among survey respondents. He tells Brownfield many rural residents were also worried about farmland being used for data centers.

“The challenge with some of the data centers is that when you build them, they are not things that can easily be removed,” he said. “You can’t just easily return the land to agricultural land when they have maybe outlived their lifespan.”

The researchers said the survey was conducted online in February and reached approximately 1,000 U.S. adults who were representative of the country by region, income, age and gender.

White says respondents also suggested the overuse of water needs to be addressed.

“For communities, make sure you do your due diligence and ask all the right questions,” he said. “Whether it’s about power generation usage, water usage, or zoning and land use, or the tax implications.”

The results concluded rural residents are more concerned about the potential impacts of data centers than urban and suburban residents.

Mark White: