They came sporting yellow “No Data Center” tee-shirts. Dozens of them in a crowd of hundreds. A sign of growing opposition to the AI manufacturers who want to build their projects.
It wasn’t in Coweta, Yukon, or any other Oklahoma city, but in Wichita, Kansas. They came to a Sedgwick County listening session where many on hand voiced their opposition to proposed data centers. They cited energy costs, pollution, water usage, infrastructure damage and more—-the same complaints, criticism and questions raised by discerning residents in many Oklahoma Cities and counties.
Sedgewick County implemented a county-wide temporary moratorium on data centers in order to give time to create regulations on their development. The moratorium deadline is June 11 but county commissioners have also considered extending it…