Erin Brockovich Enters the Chat on Data Centers

What do you think of our AI version of Julia Roberts?

Part 3: The Next Great Infrastructure Fight

By now, most data center developers have figured out that they are building buildings and also building symbols.

Symbols of AI, symbols of growth, symbols of energy consumption, symbols of globalization, and symbols of change. Increasingly, developers are building symbols onto which communities project fear, frustration, distrust, and uncertainty about the future.

This week, consumer advocate and environmental activist Erin Brockovich launched a new website encouraging Americans to report concerns about data centers in their communities. The concerns are familiar: water usage, energy consumption, diesel backup generators, noise, land use, environmental strain, secrecy, and lack of transparency.

Erin Brockovich has entered the chat.

It’s the opening salvo in what is about to become one of the most consequential infrastructure battles of the next decade. For data center developers, hyperscalers, utilities, economic development officials, and local elected leaders, the implications are enormous.

As we say around the office at Harry, the fight over data centers isn’t really about water, or noise, or diesel generators. It’s about narrative, and right now the industry is losing it.

The Industry Keeps Treating Data Centers Like Traditional Development Projects

That is the core mistake.

As we’ve discussed before, many developers still approach data centers the same way they approach warehouse projects, office parks, industrial facilities, or residential development: keep things relatively quiet, advance permitting carefully, avoid drawing unnecessary attention, and engage publicly only when required.

Is was a winning strategy 15 years ago and now, its central to why so many data center projects have stalled. We are talking about powering AI, after all, and nobody has any fears—rational or irrational—about AI, right? Thought so.

Data centers have become lightning rods because they sit at the intersection of several emotionally charged public anxieties:

• AI replacing jobs

• Distrust of Big Tech

• Energy reliability concerns

• Climate change fears

• Water scarcity

• Rural land use battles

• Corporate secrecy

• Government distrust

• Fear of losing local identity

  
  

We’re living in the social media era, a magical place where facts alone mean less than emotion. And emotion wins today’s battles.

That’s why the Erin Brockovich development matters so much.

Brockovich understands something many infrastructure developers still underestimate: people do not organize around technical specifications. They organize around emotional storytelling. She turned groundwater contamination into a national movement because she framed it as ordinary people versus powerful corporations.

Now imagine that same playbook applied to AI infrastructure.

“Massive facilities consuming enormous resources while local residents shoulder the burden.”

That is a compelling emotional narrative whether it is fully accurate or not. And as I mentioned before, once the narrative takes hold, facts become secondary.

The Data Center Industry Has a Communication Problem, Not Just a Development Problem

Some of the criticism aimed at data center developers is unfair. But some of it has been earned. That’s because too many projects still enter communities with:

• minimal public engagement,

• vague explanations,

• highly technical language,

• limited transparency,

• dismissive attitudes toward local concerns,

• or the assumption that communities simply “won’t understand.”

  
  

That approach creates a vacuum that gets filled by activists, opponents, or social media speculation.

When a community believes information is being withheld, people assume the worst. Silence is interpreted as secrecy, technical language is interpreted as evasion, and delayed engagement is interpreted as disrespect.

The irony is that many modern data centers are dramatically more efficient and community-compatible than the public realizes.

Many use sealed-loop cooling systems with significantly reduced water loss (less than a restaurant or car wash). Some are designed to minimize grid impact. Others contribute major tax revenue with relatively limited traffic impacts compared to logistics or manufacturing facilities.

But the public often never hears those facts in a meaningful, human way.

Instead, they hear:

• “AI is dangerous.”

• “These facilities will drain our resources.”

• “Corporations are hiding things.”

• “Politicians are cutting secret deals.”

• “Our community is under attack.”

  
  

Fear-brain is powerful and, as you know, fear spreads faster than engineering diagrams.

Developers Must Stop Treating Community Engagement as a Compliance Exercise

This is it. This is where many projects fail. Community engagement is too often treated as:

• a hearing,

• a website,

• a fact sheet,

• a public notice,

• or a legal requirement.

  
  

That is not engagement.

That is procedure.

Real engagement means making communities part of the conversation before opposition hardens. It means listening before presenting, acknowledging concerns without becoming defensive, and explaining complex infrastructure in plain English. It also means recognizing that public opposition is often rooted in identity, trust, and emotion, not simply technical misunderstanding.

And critically, it means understanding that local residents are not irrational for being skeptical.

From their perspective, they are being asked to accept:

• visual changes,

• energy concerns,

• infrastructure strain,

• long-term environmental uncertainty,

• and major land-use transformation,

  
  

all in exchange for promises from corporations they may not know or trust.

If developers fail to understand the emotional dynamics of that equation, they will continue losing the narrative to delays, moratoriums, and additional project cost.

Local Officials Are Stuck in the Middle

Municipal leaders face an increasingly impossible balancing act.

Communities want economic growth, the hefty tax revenue that many communities desperately need, infrastructure investment, and jobs. Yet, they fear environmental impacts, backlash from residents,accusations of corruption, and political consequences.

We are already seeing elected officials across the country facing organized resistance campaigns around data centers. In some communities, entire local political coalitions have fractured over these projects.Worse, some officials have been the subject of death threats and even assassination attempts.

Many local officials are not equipped for the communications warfare surrounding AI infrastructure. Traditional public hearing processes were designed for a slower media environment. Today, opposition movements form in days. AI-generated misinformation adds fuel to outrage cycles. Facebook groups mobilize overnight, and TikTok videos shape public perception before planning boards even hold their first meeting.

Developers and municipalities are often responding to emotional viral narratives with PDFs and engineering studies, a losing tactic at best.

This Is No Longer Just an Economic Development Issue. It’s a National Competitiveness Issue.

Complicating local issues is another layer that communities deserve to hear honestly. The United States is in a global AI infrastructure race, and infrastructure matters. Massively.

Unlike software programs, AI systems do not run on abstract “clouds.” They run on physical infrastructure:

• data centers,

• power generation,

• fiber networks,

• cooling systems,

• and compute capacity.

  
  

If America slows or blocks responsible AI infrastructure development entirely, the demand for AI will not disappear. The infrastructure will simply move elsewhere to countries with weaker environmental protections, weaker labor standards, less transparency, and far less community oversight.

I'm not suggesting that communities rubber-stamp projects. Far from it. But it does mean the conversation needs to mature beyond simplistic “data centers bad” narratives.

The real question is not whether AI infrastructure will exist. It will. The real question is: Where? Under what standards? With what oversight? And with what community benefit?

That is the adult conversation America should be having next.

What Smart Developers Should Do Right Now

The developers who succeed in the next decade will not necessarily be the ones with the deepest pockets. They will be the ones who understand influence.

Here’s what smart developers should be doing immediately:

1. Engage Before You Need To

If the first time a community hears from you is during a contentious public hearing, you are already behind. Start much earlier.

2. Speak Human, Not Engineer

Communities do not think in megawatts, evaporative cooling rates, or load balancing.

They think in:

• quality of life,

• trust,

• safety,

• identity,

• and fairness.

  
  

Translate technical benefits into human outcomes.

3. Stop Dismissing Concerns

The fastest way to radicalize opposition is to make residents feel unheard or mocked.

Listening is a strategy, not an inconvenience or weakness.

4. Build Local Coalitions

Third-party validators matter.

Local business leaders, educators, workforce organizations, utilities, labor leaders, and community voices often carry more credibility than corporate spokespeople.

5. Treat Social Media as Critical Infrastructure

Too many developers still treat digital engagement as secondary. It is central. Develop a plan that’s both strategic and tactical.

6. Prepare for AI-Era Opposition Campaigns

This is the new sobering reality:

• AI-generated content,

• coordinated activism,

• viral misinformation,

• manipulated imagery,

• emotionally optimized narratives.

  
  

Developers need communications strategies designed for this environment, definitely not 2008-era PR playbooks.

The Projects That Win Will Be the Ones That Earn Trust

At Harry, we’ve spent years watching infrastructure battles evolve in the broadband, fiberoptic, wireless, energy, healthcare, and real estate development space. Now, it’s data center’s time in the spotlight.

The common denominator is always trust. Projects fail when communities feel things are happening to them instead of with them. Projects succeed when developers recognize that public trust is not a box to check at the end of the process. It is part of the infrastructure itself. In the AI era, that trust must be earned faster, communicated more clearly, and defended more strategically than ever before.

The opposition movement around AI infrastructure is just getting started. Now, with Erin Brockovich in the mix, it’s getting further accelerated.

The developers and local leaders who continue relying on silence, secrecy, and outdated engagement strategies are about to discover just how quickly the narrative can turn against them.  But, those who recognize the shift and adapt accordingly, will be the ones who successfully build the infrastructure America needs while maintaining the trust communities deserve.

Bob Knight is CEO at Harry Marketing. He can be reached at bob@harry.marketing