Issue Brief: Who Gets a Say Over Data Centers?

Right now there is a wide, uneven conflict around data centers across the United States (and globally). These are battles over who can approve, reject, condition, subsidize, power, and regulate AI infrastructure, most visibly running through zoning hearings and the courts. But the more consequential shift is a new politics of preemption where authority moves upward and outward via state statutes, but also utility commission proceedings, tax incentive regimes, and expedited permitting systems that enmesh data centers in wider networks of interest and influence before communities have an opportunity to question their potential impacts.

In a new Issue Brief for the Local Solutions Support Center, Justin Kollar dives into the topic and explores the intersections of abusive preemption and AI data centers.

Read the Issue Brief (PDF) here.

Justin Kollar, PhD, is an assistant professor of Planning and Urban Design at the National University of Singapore, and co-director of the Infrastructure Lab. His work focuses on how high-technology industries and infrastructure reshape land use, resource systems, and regional development. To explore this topic further, visit the Atlas of Data Center Politics, an interactive database on data center legislation and politics.