As internet data centers multiply, efforts to control them are growing

A backlash against internet data centers has triggered a wave of laws around the country to restrain the rapidly growing industry that uses massive amounts of energy to make cloud computing and smart technology possible. In Northern Virginia, home to the world’s largest concentration of data center buildings, Prince William County increased its tax rate on the equipment inside data centers by 72 percent, a response in part to complaints about too many of the football-field-sized facilities being built there. Neighboring Loudoun County—which is home to most of the data centers in Northern Virginia—is moving to keep the buildings away from homes and some commercial corridors, in part by making all data center projects subject to the county board’s review instead of allowing them as a “by right” development in certain areas. It’s not just Northern Virginia. In Georgia, the state legislature recently passed legislation that would place a two-year moratorium on tax incentives allotted to the data center industry. And in Arizona, Illinois and Arkansas, officials have passed laws to either suspend data center development or further restrict where they can be built.