Why should NJ towns sacrifice for America’s AI data center boom?

First off, let's start with the positive; Congratulations to communities across New Jersey that are finally asking a very basic question about these massive AI Data Centers: Why here?

Pemberton Township has prohibited them, Medford has moved to make data centers a non-permitted use, Franklin Township has prohibited them in all zoning districts, Old Bridge moved toward a town-wide prohibition, and Jersey City introduced its own ban on data centers as a primary use.

Millville, Cherry Hill, Andover Township, Phillipsburg, Waterford Township, Monroe, Logan Township, and New Brunswick also joined the ranks of towns pushing back.

Photo by Boliviainteligente on Unsplash

I'm not against AI — I'm against putting these facilities anywhere

Good, but let's be clear, I’m not against artificial intelligence.

Actually, most of the research I do for my articles and conversations on the radio and TV start with conversations with AI bots who can research a lot faster than me googling and visiting site after site for hours.

Beyond that, America should be competitive and beat China in the race to dominate the AI market.

AI is going to transform medicine, transportation, education, national defense and almost every part of our economy.

The United States needs the computing power to win that race, but that doesn’t mean we have to drop massive data centers into small New Jersey communities.

Data centers take up massive amounts of space and consume enormous resources.

Nationally, U.S. Data centers consumed roughly 17 billion gallons of water in 2023, and the electricity demand is staggering.

Data centers are becoming one of the major new sources of demand on America’s electrical grid.

That’s not some hypothetical concern in New Jersey, Governor Mikie Sherrill’s own administration admits data centers are among the biggest drivers of increasing energy demand and wants companies to bring new power generation online rather than pushing those costs onto New Jersey ratepayers.

President Trump is saying similar things.

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What do NJ communities actually get in return?

One of the 'selling points' is the creation of jobs.

Let’s look at an actual New Jersey project.

CoreWeave's AI data center in Kenilworth represents about $1.76 billion in capital investment.

How many new full-time jobs? Only 143. Nearly $1.8 billion invested.

Massive computing infrastructure. Not surprising many residents are up in arms.

Now compare that relatively small permanent workforce with the electricity, water, land and infrastructure these facilities can require.

So here’s my question: Why are we trying to squeeze them into densely populated New Jersey towns?

Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash

Why not put data centers where America has room to build?

The federal government manages roughly 640 million acres of land in the United States. That’s about 28 percent of the entire country, and much of that federal land is in the West.

So why aren’t we having a serious national conversation about where these facilities actually belong?

What about colder climates where cooling can be more efficient? What about appropriate federal land in places with room for dedicated power generation and transmission? What about Alaska?

I’m not saying every data center belongs in Alaska.

Obviously, you have to solve for power generation, fiber connections, transmission and access.

But that’s exactly the point.

This should be a national infrastructure strategy, not a land rush where developers show up in individual towns and residents suddenly discover that an enormous industrial computing facility may become their new neighbor.

Use technology and colder climates to reduce the burden of cooling where it makes sense.

Build the infrastructure America needs to dominate artificial intelligence.

But don’t tell a small New Jersey community that sacrificing its land, water and electrical capacity is somehow the price of technological progress.

It isn’t.

We can do both; Beat China in AI, and protect our small town communities.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own.

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