Over the last year, the development of artificial intelligence and the exponential development of other new, untested technologies has risen to the top of the national conversation. Huge AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and others have been portrayed as juggernauts seeking to build a massive national network of data centers and other infrastructure to support their build-out.
What’s increasingly being lost in that conversation are the thousands of local battles over the individual approval of data centers in communities across America.
One of the most interesting fights is taking place in Lansing, New York, a small town on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake that has become ground zero for the fight over data centers. After the community expressed near-unanimous opposition in public hearings to the massive, 400 mega-watt data center to be built in their backyards, the town has been ravaged by zoning battles, lawsuits, public hearings, and now a concerted effort to remove the elected official who many see as leading the charge against the proposed data center.
It all starts with TeraWulf, a major bitcoin-mining and data center company that has largely operated outside of the national spotlight. In early 2026, they sought approval from local officials to transform the site of the former Cayuga Power Plant into a massive computing facility.
To be clear, this isn’t just any data center. It would require 400 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power more than 32,000 homes at once. To put that in context, the population of Lansing is just 11,786 — meaning this data center would require energy equalling nearly eight times the city’s current energy usage. At least.
This is a story of David versus Goliath, and electricity is only one part of the equation.
Data centers also require enormous amounts of water to keep their systems cool, which is the main reason why TeraWulf’s proposed facility is located directly on Cayuga Lake. Terawulf says its planned Lansing facility will use a closed-loop cooling system, but what they do is more revealing. Their affiliate has already received a permit allowing it to withdraw up to one million gallons of water per day from Cayuga Lake. For residents - and the more than 120,000 people who live on the lake - the prospect of a massive new industrial facility drawing on their lake is, unsurprisingly, a great point of concern.
Then there’s the noise. If you’ve never been to a data center or heard audio from one yourself, you can’t quite comprehend just how disruptive they are. The noise is caused by the massive cooling and computing infrastructure required to operate these facilities, which disrupts local wildlife and drives nearby residents to the point of insanity.
The controversy in Lansing all started when the town’s Code Enforcement Officer concluded that the data center couldn’t be approved under the town’s existing zoning laws governing manufacturing and light infrastructure.
In response, TeraWulf went to the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals, which voted 3-2 in favor of qualifying the TeraWulf project under the existing code. For many, it was Exhibit A of a local government stretching an arcane zoning code to accommodate a brand-new industry without public input and to entirely avoid the town administration.
So the town went to court.
Supported by FLX Strong and Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now (or CLEAN), the town went to court to stop the action. TeraWulf claimed the city was actively fighting a development that would significantly boost its tax revenue in a way the city hadn’t seen before, and that their existing code as passed by the Zoning Board was sufficient permission for them to begin construction.
But Lansing residents aren’t buying TeraWulf’s promises of revenue. Why? Because TeraWulf made the same claim in Somerset, New York, with nothing to show for it.
At that location, TeraWulf is embroiled in yet another legal battle where local officials are alleging the company has improperly used sales-tax exemptions to avoid paying taxes to the city. TeraWulf says its cryptocurrency mining and related operations fall under existing statutes. While TeraWulf promises jobs and tax revenue, what they don’t say is that those communities may very well spend whatever revenue benefit they’d receive in legal battles to actually see those benefits.
So why should you care what’s happening in Lansing? Because this exact story is playing out in thousands of communities all across America, and your town could be next.
Trump, MAGA, and the tech billionaires still pushing for quicker and faster development of AI technology like to focus on the national and geopolitical “big picture.” But the truth is: data centers don’t exist in the cloud. They exist on land, they consume incomprehensibly large amounts of electricity, and they drain surrounding communities of every resource they once took for granted.
After Lansing fought back, TeraWulf came back even harder.
Before the TeraWulf controversy took hold of Lansing, its deputy town supervisor, Joe Wetmore, supported a data center moratorium to allow the town enough time to update its laws, zoning, and code administration properly.
The measure failed.
Nevertheless, after the town went to court to block the TeraWulf project, a counter-suit was filed against Wetmore seeking to remove him from office, alleging that he’d abused his position to interfere in the project.
In doing so, TeraWulf and its pro-data center allies were sending a message loud and clear to small-town America: Submit. Or else.
We don’t yet know whether TeraWulf will succeed, but we do know that Lansing isn’t giving up the fight.
Just last week, the Lansing city government began moving toward adopting a blanket data center ban after all but two residents at a jam-packed local meeting spoke in opposition to the further development of any data center projects in their community.
Lansing’s story serves as a model for the integral role local communities play in stopping the haphazard, profit-focused build-out of data centers without any thought as to how it might impact the communities they’re built in.
But it’s also a cautionary tale.
Local communities are faced with the herculean task of standing up to multi-billion-dollar AI companies who are willing to outspend and bankrupt them so long as it means their data center gets online.
What Lansing exemplifies more than anything is the central battle of our time: the People versus the Power.
In Lansing, the people have won. For now. But in far too many communities across the country, state and local governments have elected to roll over, give in, or accept large sums of direct investment and allow data centers to crop up that have proceeded to tank home values, destroy local environments, and force their residents to suffer the consequences or leave their only homes behind entirely.
Lansing also tells us that your vote is your voice. Voting in every election, at every level, has never been more important. If we want to protect our friends, neighbors, and communities, we must elect public servants who will serve the public, not the power.
The choice is yours to make.