Astra Taylor on AI Data Center Resistance & Fighting "Billionaire Big Tech Agenda"

Our Take

Astra Taylor's core point on Democracy Now! is one we hammer on constantly: "inevitable" is doing a lot of work for an industry that would rather you not ask who approved the substation next to your kid's school. The data center boom isn't a force of nature — it's a series of zoning votes, tax abatements, and utility filings, each one signed by a real person who could have said no, or at least asked harder questions.

What's encouraging here is the framing of local fights as leverage points. A single county commission meeting over a rezoning request can force disclosure of water withdrawal numbers or power demand forecasts that a hyperscaler would otherwise bury in a permit application nobody reads. That's not obstruction — that's the public oversight these projects are built to route around. Check our facility map to see whether one of these fights is already happening near you.

Taylor's skepticism about "billionaire Big Tech agenda" driving AI infrastructure without democratic input tracks with what we hear from residents in deal after deal: contracts signed before communities know what's coming, ratepayers absorbing grid upgrades benefiting one company, aquifers drawn down for cooling with no public accounting. If you want in on that fight rather than just watching it happen, our take-action page has next steps. Credit to Democracy Now! for putting organizers, not just executives, in front of the camera on this one.