About
About this site
The Data Center Debate is a free, non-partisan resource on the US data center buildout. It does not take a side. It shows what each side says, the evidence behind it, and who paid for that evidence, so you can decide for yourself.
Why it exists
Data centers are being announced faster than power plants are being built, and the arguments about who pays and who benefits are happening in county board rooms, utility commission dockets and state legislatures at the same time. Most of what people hear about it comes from someone with a stake in the outcome. This site was built so that anyone, on either side or on no side yet, can see the whole picture and check it.
The rules we follow
- Both sides get their best case. Every argument is presented the way its own advocates make it, with the other side's strongest response underneath and the reply to that. Nothing is a straw man.
- Every number links to its document. Numbered sources never change meaning: source 22 is always Virginia's JLARC study.
- Every document says who paid. Industry-funded, advocacy-funded, government, academic or press. Funding is not disqualifying, but you should know it before you quote the result.
- Each side's weaknesses are printed. The handbook tells each side where it is weak and where not to overclaim. Those sections are on this site in full.
- Modeled is labeled modeled; measured is labeled measured. A 5.5 million jobs figure from an input-output model and a 100 to 200 jobs figure from counting counties are both real numbers that answer different questions.
How the daily update works
Once a day, an automated research pass looks for what changed: new studies and reports, local zoning decisions, utility filings, company announcements, and legislation. Each new item is summarized neutrally, tagged with the arguments it touches and which side it strengthens, and given a short "check it" note on what to verify. New map projects, report center entries and tracked numbers are added the same way. The pass is automated, so it can make mistakes; everything it adds carries its source link so you can check it, and corrections are welcome.
The map
Existing facilities come from public map data (OpenStreetMap), a community-maintained map that is incomplete: many operating data centers are not yet drawn. Projects under construction, proposed, or blocked are curated from news and public records with a source for each. A dot means a project was reported, not that any claim about it is true.
Privacy
No cookies, no accounts, no ads, no tracking pixels from anyone else. We count visits and handbook downloads anonymously with a one-way hash that cannot be turned back into a person and changes every day.
Corrections
If a source is misread, a number is stale, or a project's status is wrong, please say so. Corrections are listed in the change log once applied.
The handbook
The site grew out of Data Centers: A Debate Handbook, compiled september 13, 2026. revised september 16, 2026 (point 7 on noise, scale and character added to both sides, with sources 32 to 39).. It is free to download and share.