This article originally appeared in the September 2026 edition of the Nashville Business Journal. You can read the story online at the Nashville Business Journal (subscription not required) or continue below.
During our junior year in college, someone nominated one of my closer friends to be president of our fraternity for the upcoming term. While he claimed to be flattered, he told those of us at the meeting that he didn’t want the position. He felt it would have been too much work, responsibility and stress.
However, he said he would be happy to hold one of the lesser positions. One which wouldn’t require as much effort, any effort really, but one which he could still put on his resume.
Needless to say, he ended up with nothing.
Although that happened a long time ago, I remember it vividly. Primarily because there was no way he was going to win. None. He was, and still is, a lot of fun. However, president of a fraternity consistently in trouble with the administration? Not a chance.
As such, there wasn’t any reason for him to speak up, and rule out any position that might have come his way later.
In hindsight, the real question wasn’t whether he wanted the job. It was what opportunity, if any, would possibly come next.
Every time I read about some unfamiliar location protesting a proposed data center, I think about that meeting. Of course, these places aren’t out of the way to the people who live there. Further, they might even have valid reasons for why they don’t want it.
Does anyone really want a massive industrial complex, of any type, within close proximity of their primary senses? A steel mill? Auto plant? Wastewater treatment facility? Paper mill? Name it.
As a general rule, these things tend to consume a lot of energy. During the construction process, they can also raise questions about land use, water resources, construction traffic, noise and environmental impact. [1]
In truth, I doubt many folks crave a factory, corporate facility, operations campus or data center in, say, the wooded lot next to their home. They don’t want it in their neighborhood. They don’t want to see, hear, smell, taste or feel it.
There is an acronym for this: NIMBY. It stands for “not in my backyard.”
However, ask those same people whether they want new businesses coming into the general area. I suspect they would likely say they would. The problems probably won’t start until you start listing actual streets.
“You mean a beef processing plant on Belle Meade Boulevard? Never.” Hmm. I wonder if we called it an abattoir instead. That sounds so much better, doesn’t it?
But data centers? Do we really want them, even if we understand the need for them?
You have to remember; it has been a minute since the U.S. economy built out this level of industrial infrastructure in such a compressed amount of time. For many communities, large-scale industrial development of this kind may feel unfamiliar, particularly given the speed and scale of today’s data center buildout. [1]
Now, what about hotels, retail centers and office buildings? We understand that stuff just fine. But massive complexes consuming an enormous amount of energy doing what was science fiction just a short time ago?
I mean it’s one thing to generate and store something like steel. We all get that, even if, well, NIMBY. However, invisible information out in the ether? It is sort of like Wonka’s chocolate factory: no one goes in, and nobody comes out.
Trust me, I understand the reticence.
For communities weighing these projects, the calculation can involve competing considerations: capital investment, tax revenue and economic development on one side; energy and water demands, land use and quality-of-life concerns on the other. [2]
The reality is that major private investments capable of bringing substantial capital and employment to a community don’t exactly come along every day.
Now, what about some town out in the hinterland you had never heard of before? Do you think they really want some data center taking up acres of land, consuming significant resources and doing something most of them don’t fully understand to the environment?
Probably not.
Yet, what happens if the locals prevent the facility? Will there be another company willing to make a major investment in the area in the near future? One which wasn’t coming to town because of the data center, but now it can? Further, if the town doesn’t want this particular investment, will it want the next one? That is, if there is one. [3]
You see, to me, that’s the question communities must weigh when considering a data center: Are the drawbacks of this particular project greater than the potential economic opportunity—and what are the chances that another opportunity comes along? To me, it is like my friend who said he didn’t want the tough job but would have happily taken an easier one.
As I have already written, he got neither.
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SOURCES:
[1] U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – Building & Industrial Energy Systems Division – United States Data Center Energy Usage Report: 2025 Update. June 2026.
[2] U.S. Government Accountability Office – Artificial Intelligence: Generative AI’s Environmental and Human Effects. April 22, 2025.
[3] Tennessee General Assembly, Fiscal Review Committee, fiscal analysis concerning qualified data centers, 2026; Tennessee Department of Revenue, Qualified Data Center Sales and Use Tax Exemption