The residents came in camouflage hats and red shirts signaling unity, more than 300 of them packing into a rural Pennsylvania planning commission meeting to protest a proposed data center they feared would carve up their farmland and upend the quiet rhythms of their valley.
Most were loyal supporters of President Donald Trump, who carried their home of Montour County by 20 percentage points in the 2024 election. But they bristled at Washington’s push to fast-track artificial intelligence infrastructure, which has driven data-center growth in rural areas around the U.S. where land is cheap.
On a recent November evening, residents in this county of 18,000 people stepped to the microphone, questioning Talen Energy officials about how their planned data center might raise residents’ utility bills, reduce working farmland, and strain local water and natural resources.
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