A data center is proposed near me — what do I do first?

Find out where the project stands (rumors, application filed, hearing scheduled, approved, or operating), because your leverage and your next moves are different at each stage. This five-step plan walks you through sizing up the impact, unmasking the LLC behind the filing, and generating comment scripts and letters you can use at the next meeting.

How do I find out who is really behind a data center LLC?

Developers usually file under single-purpose shell LLCs. Pull the county recorder's deed and the Secretary of State business registry — the registered agent or organizer often traces to the real developer. This page checks a name against a registry of known filing entities and their parent companies.

What conditions should a community negotiate before approval?

A binding community benefit agreement recorded as a condition of approval, the developer paying 100% of grid upgrades, an enforceable water cap with public reporting, a noise limit at the property line, and a decommissioning bond. The action pack on this page fills these in with your project's numbers.

Start here

A data center was proposed near me.

Five quick steps: your situation → who's behind it → what it costs you → what to do this week → a downloadable action pack for your next meeting. Free, sourced, and works without an account.

Step 1

Your situation

Your state

Next hearing or vote (if known)

Where does the project stand?

Step 2

Who's really behind it

Who's building it?

Step 3

What it will cost your community

200 MW

If you only know acreage: a typical campus runs 50–100 MW per large building; mid-size campuses are 200–500 MW.

Share this page with your numbers already filled in.

Step 4

What to do this week

Precedents worth citing

Open the source links before you quote one — a precedent you cannot cite is worse than none at all.

Step 5

Your action kit

Everything below is pre-filled with your numbers: a printable action pack (speech, letters, and outreach playbook), ready-to-paste social posts, and a one-page campaign website you can host for free.

🎤 Your 2-minute public comment (pre-filled)

Language: English Español

✉ Ready-to-send letters (records · PUC · council)

Replace the [BRACKETED] placeholders and send. All three are also in the action pack.

📢 Post it — Nextdoor, Ring, Facebook & more

Copy-paste posts with your numbers filled in — replace the [BRACKETS]. Then the platform playbook.

🪪 Rally your neighbors

Meeting date & time

Location

🌐 Your campaign website (free to host)

A complete one-page site with your numbers baked in. Download index.html, then drag it onto Netlify Drop or GitHub Pages — both free — and share the link.

Group name

Contact email (shown on the site)

Go deeper

Model CBA clauses → Hearing questions Full impact calculator How this hits your bill

As of May 2026 (3m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing · Source: EIA — Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A: average retail price of electricity to residential customers by state (the current figure, updated monthly)

**Rates** are EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A, May 2026 — all 51 refreshed together from the published table rather than spot-edited, so cross-state comparisons stay valid. Note this is a single month, not an annual average: residential prices are seasonal, and May is a shoulder month, so summer-peaking states may run higher than shown. The refresh moved rates up a mean of 18.6%, and 48 of 51 jurisdictions (50 states plus D.C.) rose. The largest increases land in the PJM footprint and other data-center-dense markets — D.C. +61%, Illinois +55%, Maryland +36%, Ohio +36%, New York +34% — which is the correlation worth raising at a hearing, though correlation is all it is: this table cannot attribute a rate increase to a cause. **Carbon intensities** are state annual averages and move far more slowly than prices; they were not part of this refresh and remain broadly usable. **Water stress** is a coarse low/medium/high banding, not a basin-level assessment — a state marked 'low' can still contain a stressed watershed, which is the scale that actually decides a cooling permit.