At a time when Americans seemingly can’t agree on anything, the results of a recent FDU Poll shows voters in New Jersey overwhelming agree on one thing: No new data centers.
Approximately two-thirds of those surveyed (65 percent) favor a ban on the construction of new data centers in New Jersey until more power plants can be built.
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And while proposals like this have traditionally been bogged down by attempts to find a balance between environmental and economic concerns, support for a ban runs across party lines: 61 percent of Republicans support it, alongside 69 percent of Democrats and 60% of independents.
The reason is easy to understand: The proliferation of data centers — especially in Virginia — has been cited as a driver of increased electricity bills throughout the East Coast.
Currently, data centers use about 5 percent of the electricity in New Jersey.
The poll, released Tuesday morning, was sponsored by the International Union of Operating Engineers, though the group had no influence over the process.
Greg Lalevee, Business Manager for Local 825, said the results speak volumes.
“New Jersey voters are sending a clear message: the operators of new data centers need to show how their facilities will not raise rates,” he said. “Ideally, they might even be able to generate surplus power and feed it into the state grid.
“If they can do that, people will be a lot more receptive.”
A lot of people will need convincing.
The poll not only showed a consensus among political parties; it also showed agreement among all age brackets. Consider the percentages of those who say they oppose the building of data centers:
- 30 and under: 67%;
- 31-44: 70%;
- 45-64: 64%;
- 65 and over: 61%.
Dan Cassano, the executive director of the FDU Poll, said the results are clear.
“Rightly or wrongly, voters blame data centers for their increased electricity bills,” he said. “The argument that doing so would hurt the state economy doesn’t help when people are worried about their own finances.”
The issue is playing out in real time.
On March 30, NJ Spotlight News reported a pushback against a date center going up near Vineland in Cumberland County.
In Gloucester County, residents are working to prevent data centers from going up at all.
The survey was conducted March 20–28 among 805 registered New Jersey voters, using a mix of live-caller phone interviews and text-to-web responses.
Data were weighted for sex, age, education, region and race/ethnicity. The margin of error is ±3.4 percentage points, or ±3.9 when accounting for weighting effects.
FDU Poll officials stress the sponsor had no role in question wording or data weighting.
