After years of states pushing legislation to accelerate the development of data centers and the electric grid to support them, some legislators want to limit or repeal state and local incentives that paved their way. President Donald Trump also has changed his tone. Last year he issued an executive order and other federal initiatives meant to support accelerated data center development.
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This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 19, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
The New Brunswick, New Jersey City Council voted Wednesday to cancel plans to construct an artificial intelligence data center and instead build a new public park where the 27,000-square foot facility would have gone.
Artificial intelligence data centers—which house the servers and other infrastructure needed to train and power AI models—have major environmental and climate impacts, as they consume massive amounts of electricity and water, as well as rare earth metals and other resources.
According to New Brunswick Patch, hundreds of people packed into Wednesday evening’s city hall meeting to voice concerns that the proposed data center would send their electricity and water bills skyrocketing, and that the facility would harm the environment.
“Many people did not want this in their neighborhood,” New Brunswick NAACP president Bruce Morgan said during the council meeting. “We don’t want these kinds of centers that’s going to take resources from the community.”
The site of the nixed data center, 100 Jersey Avenue, is already slated for development including 600 new apartments—10% of which will be affordable housing units—and warehouses for startups and other small businesses. Now, thanks to Wednesday’s vote, a park is on the agenda too.
“This is great news, no data center,” New Brunswick resident Anne Norris told Patch.
“My kids went through the public school system; we didn’t pay for lunch because we have so many families under the poverty line,” Norris said before taking aim at what she said was the dearth of affordable housing approved for the site.
“Given the economic status of the people who live in New Brunswick, I don’t think 10% is really sufficient,” she contended.
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ChatGPT4o parent company Anthropic AI already has multiple lawsuits filed against it due to multiple grieving families alleging their loved ones committed suicide or even murder due the chat bots affirmation of delusions, paranoia and even isolating them from friends families and outside help. But there is another problematic aspect to AI which is underreported and underestimated the impact of AI Sycophancy on the overall emotional and mental health and well being of human beings and their relationships– and perhaps the very future of humanity.
Credits:
Studio/Post-Production: David Hebden
Written by: Stephen Janis, Taya Graham, Amanda Scherker
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.Taya Graham:
If someone told a teenager whose parents were trying to limit his screen time, that he should consider murdering them. You’d probably think they weren’t a great source of relational advice. If someone told a man who had come to believe he lived inside a matrix to stop taking his prescribed medications and increase his ketamine use all while cutting off contact with family and friends, you probably consider them pretty manipulative. If someone started calling you a divine messenger from God after just one hour of conversation, you might wonder if they weren’t just a little bit sycophantic. What I mean is that AI acts like your best friend even when you’re trying to figure out how to harm yourself. And that’s a big problem that the AI industry is simply brushing off and for good reason. I’ll provide some links to videos below as well as a lawsuit by the families who lost their
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 16, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
An artificial intelligence data center development venture has signed a multimillion-dollar deal that will allow it to consume over 40% of a Pennsylvania town’s excess water supply.
PennLive reported on Monday that Carlisle Development Partners, a joint venture created by developers Pennsylvania Data Center Partners and PowerHouse Data Centers, had signed a $14.1 million agreement that will let it tap into the public water and sewer systems of Middlesex Township, Pennsylvania.
According to PennLive, the deal will formalize the 18-building data center’s right to access up to 400,000 gallons of water per day, which the publication notes is “equal to the consumption of 2,367 dwelling units.”
Middlesex Township Supervisor Phil Neiderer said during a recent planning commission meeting that the big influx of revenue to the local government would more than make up for the massive amounts of water being consumed by the data center.
“What that’s going to do is it’s going to fund a lot of projects that have already been in the books that are completely unrelated to the data center,” Neiderer said, according to PennLive.
In recent months, residents of Middlesex Township and Cumberland County have raised concerns about not only water use but also pollution and utility rates tied to the project.
AI data centers have become a major controversy throughout the US in recent months, as their massive energy needs have pushed up utility bills and put a strain on communities’ water supplies.
A study published in the journal Nature Sustainability last year found that data centers could soon consume as much water as 10 million Americans and emit as much carbon dioxide as 10 million cars, or roughly the
Ring, the doorbell and security systems company owned by Amazon, announced last week it was canceling its partnership with surveillance company Flock Security following immense backlash to a Super Bowl commercial touting its artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The integration with Flock was first announced in October. Ring released a statement on February 12 stating that the planned…
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Boom Supersonic wants to build the world’s first commercial supersonic airliner. Founded in 2014, the company set out to make air travel dramatically faster — up to twice the speed of today’s passenger jets — while also aiming for a smaller environmental footprint. For years, Boom has focused on developing the high-performance engine technology needed to sustain supersonic flight.
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