New Jersey voters don’t want the state to make it easier to build data centers. But a new poll suggests rising electric bills aren’t the reason.
The latest FDU Poll, conducted with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825, found that voters’ views on data centers are driven far more by how they feel about artificial intelligence and big tech companies.
Dan Cassino, a professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the executive director of the FDU Poll, said that runs against conventional wisdom.
“We’ve seen concerns about both electricity prices and data centers increasing at the same time, so it’s been natural to assume that one is driving the other,” he said. “But it’s attitudes about big tech companies and AI that are driving views about data centers much more than electricity prices.”
Only 25% of voters said the state should make it easier to build data centers, while 65% said it should not, according to the poll. Support was highest among Republicans and self-identified MAGA voters, at 41%. Even among those groups, most didn’t back making it easier.
Voters were far friendlier to other kinds of development. According to the poll:
- 79% want it to be easier to build middle-class housing;
- 64% want it to be easier to build solar and wind facilities;
- 57% want it to be easier to build natural gas plants;
- Voters split on warehouses: 39% for making it easier, 41% against.
Cassino said support for housing and power plants crossed party lines, though voters disagree on which kinds of plants to build.
“Partisanship matters most when it comes to abstract issues,” he said. “When voters are all looking at the same problems, like unaffordable housing and rising electric bills, the obvious solutions tend to be popular no matter what party you’re coming from.”
Greg Lalevee, Business Manager of IUOE Local 825, said the results show voters want more energy and more housing.
“There is a sea change in New Jersey when it comes to increasing our energy supply with an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach and building more homes. Voters in a fully nonpartisan way understand we need more of both to make our state more affordable,” he said. “Similarly, voters have a clear view that data centers won’t help them based on what they know.”
To find out what drives opposition to data centers, the poll ran an experiment. Before the development questions, respondents were randomly asked about one of three topics: regulating big tech companies, regulating AI, or whether their electric bills had gone up.
The electric bill question made no real difference. Among respondents primed to think about electricity prices, 25% said it should be easier to build data centers. Among those who also said their bills had gone up, 21% did — a gap the pollsters said was too small to be statistically significant.
The tech questions moved the numbers. Respondents primed on big tech who wanted more regulation of those companies were 12 points less likely to back easier data center construction (14%, down from 26%). Among those who wanted more AI regulation, support fell 9 points (14%, down from 23%).
“People in New Jersey don’t like data centers, but putting it in the context of electric bills doesn’t change anything,” Cassino said. “It’s when people are thinking about data centers in terms of AI and big tech that they really start to turn against them.”
The same framing increased support for renewables. Voters who wanted more big tech regulation were 11 points more likely to favor making it easier to build solar and wind plants (77%, up from 66%). The AI regulation question produced an 8-point increase (77%, up from 69%).
Cassino said that’s a problem for data center developers.
“Data centers think that they can mute opposition by building their own power plants, but the data is showing that won’t be enough, and distrust of big tech companies is a much more important barrier,” he said.
