密歇根州第七国会选区的民主党初选，正在成为一场对抗数据中心的政治试验场。一位候选人的内部民调显示，超过四成的潜在投票者更倾向于支持反对数据中心建设的候选人。在45岁以下选民中，这一比例接近八成。（原文：Internal polling conducted by Data for Progress of likely Democratic primary voters in the district shared with WIRED shows that more than 40 percent of respondents were “much more likely” to vote for a candidate who opposed data centers. The message resonated even more with respondents under 45: Almost 80 percent of younger voters said they’d be much more likely or more likely to support an anti-data-center candidate.）
这个数字让气候活动组织“日出运动”的创始人之一威尔·劳伦斯感到意外。他现在正在该选区竞选国会议员，并主张暂停数据中心的发展。他告诉《连线》杂志，这“当然不是我预期在竞选中要谈论的议题”。（原文：Data centers “certainly [weren’t] the issue I expected to be talking about on the campaign,” Lawrence tells WIRED.）
但选民主动找上了他。从他去年夏天宣布参选后，在市政厅会议和其他聚会上，人们开始自发地接近他，询问如何将邻里间对数据中心的愤怒情绪转化为有组织的行动。劳伦斯说：“人们觉得他们被这些公司和欢迎它们入驻的地方官员彻底轻视了。”（原文：Voters, he says, started organically approaching him at town halls and other meetings after he announced his candidacy last summer, asking for his advice as a longtime organizer about how to channel the anti-data-center energy among their neighbors into something productive. “People feel like they’re being utterly disrespected by the companies and the local officials who are welcoming them into town,” he says.）
参议员伯尼·桑德斯已经表态支持劳伦斯，称他是一位将“要求大型科技公司和AI公司真正负责”的候选人。（原文：Senator Bernie Sanders has endorsed him, calling Lawrence a candidate who will “demand real accountability for big tech and AI companies.”）这场对数据中心的抵制，劳伦斯观察到，也正在帮助他理解密歇根农村地区对另一种大型工业项目的抗拒情绪：公用事业规模的可再生能源。（原文：And the backlash to data centers, Lawrence says, is helping him understand rural resistance to another kind of large-scale industrial project in the state: utility-scale renewable energy.）
在密歇根州，据清洁能源数据库Cleanview的信息，全州至少有11个数据中心正在规划中。（原文：There are at least 11 data centers planned throughout Michigan, according to the clean-energy database Cleanview.）在劳伦斯所在的第七区，两个乡镇的显著地方阻力，已在过去一年里至少搁置了两个计划中的项目。但在密歇根其他地方，数据中心开发商找到了绕过地方反对的途径。今年早些时候，当第六区的一个乡镇投票反对甲骨文公司的数据中心项目后，该公司提起了诉讼，小镇为了避免一场昂贵的法庭斗争而允许开发继续进行。（原文：Significant local pushback in two townships in the 7th district have stalled at least two planned projects over the past year. But data center developers have found ways around local opposition elsewhere in the state. After a township in the 6th district voted against an Oracle data center earlier this year, the company sued, and the town let development begin rather than engage in a costly court battle.）
就在本月早些时候，密歇根州州长格雷琴·惠特默现身甲骨文数据中心的开幕仪式。在现场照片里，她与OpenAI的山姆·奥尔特曼并肩微笑，并称赞了这项160亿美元的投资。（原文：Earlier this month, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer appeared at the opening of the Oracle data center, where she was photographed smiling next to OpenAI’s Sam Altman and praised the $16 billion investment.）
一位来自加利福尼亚的民主党策略师库珀·特博评论道：“任何有分量的候选人都知道这些数据中心是有毒的。”他说，认识不到这一点的候选人，可能会陷入麻烦。（原文：“Any candidate worth their weight knows that these data centers are toxic,” says Cooper Teboe, a Democratic strategist based in California. Candidates that don’t recognize this, Teboe says, ）
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