The tech industry's approach to siting data centers has been arrogant, high-handed and dismissive of the concerns of local communities. Local governments have been suborned, with industry even going so far as imposing NDAs, which have no place in democratic governance. In some states the state government has been lobbied to pass laws removing control of the issue from local governments.

The article's assessment that this "political strategy [...] has left them closely allied, in the public’s imagination, to a failing Republican administration" misses the mark. It is rather this demonstrated lack of respect for local communities that has prompted a nearly universal non-partisan backlash.