While the news received very little mainstream media attention, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma has accomplished something profound: they quickly and cleanly banned data centers on their native land. No quibbling, equivocating, or cutting backroom deals while simultaneously telling their people they were on their side, they just did it. As reported by Native News Online, the Seminole Nation had been approached by a developer with the data center proposal, followed by a request to sign a non-disclosure agreement and a letter of intent. While most Oklahoma community leaders would jump at this opportunity (they’ve virtually all been jumping), Seminole leaders held a town hall to discuss the matter on March 3rd, and vote unanimously to,
““implement a moratorium on the advancement of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and hyperscale data center development within the Seminole Nation and within tribal lands and territories.”
What a wonderful example of single-minded courage they’ve provided for the rest of Oklahoma. Can we live up to it? While it’s been slow in coming, signs of resistance are beginning to pop up around the state. Tulsa and Oklahoma City have both passed temporary moratoriums on construction of new data centers, to address shortfalls and gaps in zoning regulations, which highlights the exploitative nature of the data center land rush: they’re taking advantage of areas with lax zoning laws around the country. It’s now common knowledge that developers actively seek out areas with easily-wooed council members, along with overly-lenient zoning laws and an executive and legislature hypnotized by “growth” at any cost. More than anything we need elected leaders slightly less willing to sell our state down river. Seems like a low bar, but one that vanishingly few of our leaders appear willing to clear.
Thanks to this plague of moral cowardice, data center development is running wild like an invasive species in the Sooner State. Every week we hear of a new proposed data center, and we find out that some small town council has been in talks for months, and they’ve already signed the NDA and letter of intent, all under the noses of the people they’re supposed to represent. By the time the plans are made public, the data center seems inevitable. Protests, lawsuits, council meeting crowds, there is a feeling of futility among communities, who feel as if they’ve been kept out of the loop on purpose. They, who will be forced to foot the bill in higher utility bills and a generationally blighted landscape, get no say in the matter.
In the United States alone, around 4,000 data centers already exist, and 1,500 to 3,000 are being planned. Contrast this with the fact that the country with the next highest amount is Germany, with only 500. China, who we’re constantly being told is the reason we’re building these facilities at such a break-neck pace, has only around 400. What is going on here? Who, and what, are these for? What could possibly justify the enormous resource drain that data centers inflict on the communities they move into?
Last year, data centers in the US consumed roughly 224 terawatt hours of electricity, or 4.5% of the total electricity supply of the US for that year. By 2030, that electricity consumption is expected to reach 17%. But given the rapid pace of data center construction, that number could reach much higher.
In 2025, US data centers drained over 260 billion gallons of water from the total supply. Google’s data center campus near Pryor, Oklahoma, alone used 1.1 billion gallons of water in the same year. Also last year in Texas, data centers used a staggering 25 billion gallons of water. Is this really sustainable? The question seems rhetorical. There’s an unsettling realization occurring that no one allowing these data centers to be built is giving the slightest thought to long-term consequences of allowing our power and water to be drained in this way.
The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma has shown us that data centers are not inevitable. So why are we being made to believe that they are? Why are so many being built here compared to other countries? What are they going to be used for, and will it benefit us or enslave us within a digital panopticon? Myself and others are getting a very bad feeling about this rapid and unchecked rise of AI data centers, and what comes after this AI infrastructure in put into place. Not merely in resource drain, but consequences for privacy and civil liberties. With our every movement tracked and recorded, can it reasonably be said that privacy will cease to exist even just a few years from now? Will every facet of our lives be catalogued, judged, even predicted? Will AI be used to assign each of us a social credit score? Does freedom and prosperity really seem compatible in slightest with this rapid rise of an AI oligarchy?
Our elected leaders, for the most part, appear slavish in the face of Big Tech. Whether it’s our schools, city councils, state and federal legislatures, few are willing to just say no.
The Age of Apathy must come to an end. We have to wake up and fight back. Anything less would be an insult to our heritage of American liberty, and to the legacy that we wish to pass on to our descendants.
