We have been hearing for several years now that AI is the future on many levels. To that end, companies like Amazon and Meta are spending a fortune to build AI data centers to run and power this wave of the future; in fact, there are approximately 80 towns in New Jersey, like Kenilworth and Secaucus, that are in favor of the idea. But not everyone is on board; several other New Jersey towns have imposed or are contemplating a ban, forbidding AI data centers from opening within their boundaries. Many of them cite noise pollution and power and water usage as the most common reasons for the ban.
What do the data centers mean for the towns that choose to let a data center go up, and why have some towns decided to ban AI centers outright? Mason Leath is a business and economics reporter for ABC News; he appeared on 710 WOR’s Curtis Sliwa and Larry Mendte in the Morning program to explain why some towns think AI should stand for “Aren’t Interested” when the tech giants come calling.
Leath cited energy and water concerns for Larry as the primary reason why many towns are pushing back against the billions of dollars that companies are spending in the name of AI infrastructure: “Wholesale electricity prices across the 13-state PGM grid, which serves about 67 million people from Illinois to New Jersey, jumped 76% in the first quarter of 2026, which grid watchdogs say is only the beginning, and the impact could continue to grow from these AI data centers… (A)ccording to the people I’ve talked to, they say an AI-focused data center can consume as much power as 100,000 homes and up to five million gallons of water per day to cool down the facility. And, you know, researchers are already estimating that the carbon footprint of certain AI data centers may rival that of entire cities.”
Leath says it’s the “anything goes” mentality that heightens the sense of worry by smaller communities that they’ll wake up to suddenly find a behemoth AI data center in their midst: “When you look at the federal level, there’s no comprehensive detailed policy yet for what’s happening with AI data centers, which is why consumer advocates say the burden keeps falling on people and local communities for the local legislation. It’s kind of like a little bit of an arms race for these big tech companies to be building all these facilities before there is national legislation than can kind of curtail some of what’s happening.”
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