Effective Resistance vs Whack-a-Mole
By Kevin Nichols, ECI Special Projects Coordinator
Google is building an AI data center in Fort Wayne and it may be too late to entirely stop the project. Regardless, on November 13th more than 300 people attended an IDEM hearing to speak out against a permitting request for an additional 140 diesel generators to power the site. It feels like Indiana is at the epicenter of AI data center construction and Hoosiers from across the political spectrum are saying “not here.”
In the race to build capacity for profitable AI products developers prioritize accelerated build timelines above all else. The biggest names in tech are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to graft their server warehouses over our land and resources. They will not let up until the AI bubble bursts, communities fight back, or policymakers turn against them. Under such circumstances, despair is understandable. And yet, Indiana communities continue to mobilize against these projects, push for county-wide moratoriums on new data centers, and prevent the worst case scenarios from becoming reality.
Like many in Indianapolis, I celebrated the withdrawal of Google’s rezoning request for their Franklin Township development. It felt like a David vs. Goliath victory, where community pushback stopped a tech giant in its tracks. Meanwhile, 30 miles away in the town of Monrovia, Morgan County commissioners approved a rezoning request to allow construction of another Google data center on a more than 500-acre plot even larger than the Franklin Township site. I am starting to understand what people mean when they call this a game of “whack-a-mole.” Just this week, we found out about two more proposed data centers in Pike and Decatur townships. Developers have the time and resources to strategize, and state leaders are encouraging them to come here in droves. How can we stay motivated in a fight with so many shifting, developing fronts?
How do we know if we’ve made an actual difference or just kicked the can down the road?
The most effective resistance to data centers is early, localized, and motivated by a variety of potential harms. And while it’s common to organize around NIMBY-ism, the climate doesn’t care which county emissions come from. I was thrilled to meet community members from Franklin Township at a protest against another data center proposal several miles away in Indy’s Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood. We are building a network of grassroots organizers poised to support community resistance efforts wherever they are. This is why Earth Charter Indiana created a community organizer toolkit with step-by-step guides, templates, and links to resources. Communities may be separated geographically, but their passionate opposition to data centers reflects our shared desire for healthy and livable communities.
I first wrote about the tidal wave of data center development in October after attending a data center investor and developer conference. Since then, federal regulators have eased paths to construction and grid connection, our state energy secretary has called for companies to sue communities that place moratoriums on energy projects, and Indiana has put the pedal to the metal on nuclear energy development. Since state leadership is willfully ignoring Hoosiers’ concerns, local action is the best option.
A recent report from Data Center Watch estimated $98 billion in data center developments have been blocked or delayed in the US by activist efforts between March and June of 2025.
During the same period, Indiana had 13 local groups rallying against a data center development, more than any state in the country except Virginia. This is not a series of isolated incidents, but a wave of action with Indiana at the crest. There is a growing public awareness that the purported benefits of AI are not worth the costs to our land, our communities, or our climate. We resist locally and celebrate every victory, knowing that each time a data center is successfully blocked, there is another fight waiting for us around the corner. If we keep this up until the bubble bursts, we just might win.