Scientist: Data centers crucial to everyday life

Amid ongoing protests about the construction of data centers in Texas, a former White House scientist described the centers as necessary to serve the everyday life of every American. "Your cellular communications are mediated through data centers," Mark Mills, executive director of the National Center for Energy Analytics, told The Center Square during an interview. Mills served in President Ronald Reagan's White House Science Office after having worked as an experimental physicist and development engineer in microprocessors and fiber optics. Mills went on to serve as chairman and chief technology officer during the 2000s at ICx Technologies. "Medical records, Google mapping, shopping, social media, gaming - all this is going on in data centers," said Mills, who earned his physics degree at Queen's University in Canada and is a faculty fellow today at Northwestern University's School of Engineering. Texas is in the midst of a "week of action" including rallies, protests, and meetings expressing opposition to data centers being built, The Center Square reported. One advocacy organization, Humans First, organized 142 protests across 42 states during its July 18 "AI Datacenter National Day of Protest." Texas hosted 18 protests, more than any other state, media outlets have reported. As of April 2026, Texas had 84 operating data centers and 140 planned projects, The Center Square previously reported. The Center Square reached out to Humans First Texas State Director Cathy Latham and organizers from the July 18 protests, but they said they were not able to fulfill interview requests by the time of publication. Mills compared the current protests surrounding data centers to demonstrations that arose after World War II when the aviation industry expanded. Mills attributed the protests in the 1960s surrounding airports, commercial flying and airport noise to the advent of the jet engine. "The jet engine is to airplanes, is what artificial intelligence is to computers, and it really changed the game," Mills said. "The technical fact is that AI as a form of computing requires far more powerful, bigger data centers." Will Hild, CEO of consumer advocacy group Consumers Research, offered a similar analysis. "The same activists protesting data centers today are the ones who spent years trying to shut down American oil and gas in the name of climate change. They simply found a different target," Hild said in a statement provided to The Center Square. "When developed responsibly, data centers strengthen local economies, expand the tax base, and help position states to lead in the technologies that will define the future. States should welcome that opportunity, not allow the same anti-growth activists to stand in the way of prosperity." According to Mills, data centers have been around for over 25 years, dating back prior to the AI revolution, which is making computers more useful. He said everyone depends on them daily. "Consumers are using apps and software that they find helpful and useful for banking, traveling, and all those products and services exist in physical hardware inside a data center," Mills added. Humans First protest against the construction of AI data centers voicing concerns about expanded electricity and water demands, noise and land use, as well as national security, its website says. The advocacy organization labels itself as a "conservative social movement." "There is no question that concerns about Big AI are bipartisan. However, whether we like it or not, we live in a deeply divided and partisan country," Amy Kremer, chair of Humans First, previously said. "I wish my friends on the left the best of luck in their efforts, but we conservatives know first-hand just how dangerous Big Tech can be to our movement and our values, which is why Humans First will focus solely on organizing conservatives." But Jason Isaac, founder and CEO of the American Energy Institute, said protest organizers who claim to be conservatives don't act like it. "The activists branding themselves as 'conservatives' to fight data centers are running the same playbook they used against American energy for years: repackage a left-wing agenda and hope no one checks the donor records," Isaac said in a statement provided to The Center Square. "Texas has a real opportunity to lead the nation in AI and energy production, and that leadership depends on building the data centers and power generation needed to support it. Voters deserve to know that the loudest opposition comes from foreign and Democrat donors and activists with a long record of fighting American energy, not from conservatives worried about their communities. We should welcome this growth, not let recycled activism get in the way of jobs, tax revenue, and American competitiveness." Mills recognized that opposition to data centers has come from both sides of the aisle. "It appears to be a pretty bipartisan plurality," Mills said. "Depending how you word the question. 'Do you want a data center next to you?' It's a pretty strong bipartisan 'no.' 'Do you think we should build data centers at all?' That's a lower negative response, but still a plurality." Mills went on to say, though, that the reasons for displeasure differ on the two sides. "Self-identified Democrats seem to be more worried about the ostensible environmental impacts and energy use, and the self-identified Republicans seem to be less happy about the Big Tech and social media," Mills said. Protests related to increasing electricity bills and water usage, while worth paying attention to, should not disallow the construction of data centers, according to Mills. "The electric rate issue is a real issue," Mills said. "Electric rates have gone up in many parts of the country, but they've been going up, not entirely, but almost entirely because of policies unrelated to data centers." Mills called concerns for water usage "fundamentally a bogus issue." Mills said golf courses use more water than data centers ever will and noted solutions such as closed-loop cooling systems have been instituted to save water. Mills also said ethanol production wastes significantly more water than data centers. "For the people who are worried about wasting water, they ought to focus on ethanol production," Mills said. "Ethanol production uses far more water than data centers and in fact, about 600 times more water per gallon of useful energy than gasoline." Protests should instead be directed toward ethanol production, Mills said. "Ethanol as an energy policy is a really bad idea because of the land, and we're using food to make fuel for cars because it's using agricultural land to fabricate an inferior car automobile or truck fuel, but you don't see many protests," Mills said. Mills argued data centers can provide tax relief to local residents. "They pay big taxes, and they reduce the taxes for the local residents," Mills said. "So those counties that have already enjoyed that benefit, seem very unlikely to give it up."