There is an old adage in public relations: “In the absence of information, people will believe the worst.”
That is exactly what is happening with data centers across the region and the United States.
The owners, operators and suppliers of data centers, including Google, Microsoft and QTS, may be brilliant and at the cutting edge of technology and finance, but they are failing to counter false or misleading information about their facilities. These facilities are essential to artificial intelligence and the so-called fourth industrial revolution now underway.
This communications void is also hurting their most important advocates, including economic development leaders, chambers of commerce, city governments, utilities and labor unions. Those allies have been fighting this ongoing public relations crisis with one hand tied behind their backs. Many are constrained by nondisclosure agreements that prevent them from making their case publicly.
Water and electrical consumption and land usage are the most common concerns raised about data centers, but those legitimate questions quickly give way to conspiracy theories, fueled in part by the extraordinary wealth accumulating among leaders of the largest technology companies.
Elected officials, responding rationally to an uninformed and anxious public, are taking the path of least resistance. They are calling for moratoriums.
That is precisely what occurred at a recent Cedar Rapids City Council meeting. The Linn County Board of Supervisors went further and enacted an 18-month moratorium. Similar moratoriums have been enacted or proposed across Iowa and in communities throughout the country.
The question must be asked directly: When will these technology leaders take responsibility for addressing both the real and the unfounded concerns of the public?
The stakes could not be higher. If the United States does not lead in artificial intelligence and data center infrastructure, other nations, China chief among them, will fill that void. The long-term consequences of ceding that ground would be severe.
Good public relations requires more than generating tax revenue for local governments. It demands a sustained, transparent and coordinated effort to engage communities and the general public before concerns harden into opposition.
The data center industry has the resources, the talent and the facts on its side. What it lacks is the will to communicate. Company representatives need to be present at city council meetings, in newsrooms, at civic organizations and in schools. They need to explain how their facilities work, what they consume, what they contribute and why they matter to the economic and technological future of this country.
Unless data center owners and operators change course and commit to genuine community engagement, their future in the United States will be shaped not by the merits of what they build, but by a political movement that has gone largely unanswered.
That is not a technology problem. It is a leadership problem, and it has a solution.
