Pair of Kansas lawmakers face blowback in their fight against data centers
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What is the current state of data center development and community opposition in Kansas?
If you were living under a rock these days, you might not know that city and county leaders all over the state are looking at plans to build data centers, and that communities largely have responded with some degree of outrage about deals made in the dark and the impact on water and electricity. If you are living under a rock, you might not even know about artificial intelligence and how data centers will bring more of it into our lives whether we want it or not. But you're not living under a rock because you're listening to this episode of the Kansas Reflector Podcast, which is distributed through the magic of the internet. I'm editor in chief Sherman Smith, and our guests today are caught in the riptide of public outrage over data centers and the political consequences for opposing them.
Brooklyn Mosley, a Lawrence Democrat, and Alexis Simmons, a Democrat from Topeka, both state representatives, are here with me. Welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me. This is the dream of my life.
Very good.
Thanks, Sherman.
So, um, you know, let's just uh start by talking about what is happening with data centers right now. What are you guys seeing?
Um, I can say that I live in Lawrence and so um recently we've had uh a moratorium be put out for two years on data centers. So what I'm seeing is um basically the people are creating a picket line around data centers and they're actually mo self mobilizing and they're working long days and then they're going to their city commission meetings and they're pushing back on this. So I'm seeing some one of the most big one of the biggest ground root grassroots movements that I've seen in a long time.
Yeah, I agree with that. There's a mass mobilization of people. uh Republicans, Democrats, unaffiliated, people that have historically not felt compelled to engage in the democratic process at either the local or the state level. um are feeling the pressure of this existential crisis and it's pushing them to show up to advocate. We just passed a moratorium in Topeka a couple of weeks ago and then last night the Topeka City Council reconvened to bring it up again to uh strengthen it even. And that was supported unanimously in public comment. Um well I suppose there was one one opponent. Um uh but by and large the public has not they could not have been more clear that they don't like data centers, they want things to slow down.
And a as you m say this is uh an issue that crosses party lines. I think you have uh Republican colleagues in the the legislature who are also picking up on some of these concerns, right?
Oh yeah. There's a significant bipartisan coalition that's developed. We've been having conversations with quite a few of them about legislation that we can introduce in January to repeal some of these tax incentives that were passed in S B ninety eight. And how we can put further regulations onto these data centers. So that if they must be built, uh we can minimize the damage. Um I mean in a perfect world we'd stop the tidal wave, but uh You know, that's not how politics always works. But we've got a great, great coalition that's putting up a big fight.
We'll dive into some of that in uh a little more detail as we go through the conversation today, but um just uh to uh inform the conversation, it looks like there are thirty-nine data centers already in Kansas either operating or being built. Um these things they process and store and transmit information. They're computer servers basically. Um they uh come in different sizes, we'll say, different uses basically, but um a lot of people are concerned about what's known as a hyperscale data center, right? These are very large, they consume a lot of power, some small as much power as a small city. Um it's not all about artificial intelligence, but the boom is being driven by artificial intelligence. So that's the landscape that we're seeing with data centers in the across the state.
What are you seeing in the political landscape once you get removed from what those grassroots people in your communities are saying?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the current state of data center development and community opposition in Kansas?
0:00–7:12
2
How are Lawrence and Topeka using moratoriums to curb data center construction?
7:12–14:18
3
What bipartisan coalition is forming around data‑center tax incentives and regulation?
14:18–22:02
4
Why do labor unions feel excluded from data‑center legislation and tax breaks?
22:02–28:41
5
How much water do hyperscale data centers consume and what are the risks for Kansas?
28:41–33:06
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