The Tucson City Council sent the developer of an Amazon-linked data center a very clear message: No, we don’t want you here—you’re blocked.

The Council voted unanimously to end talks with the developer of Project Blue, a proposed data center to be built by developer Beale Infrastructures. Furthermore, city leaders will speed up work on regulations that would govern any future sites. The decision halts annexation needed to provide Tucson water service to the 290-acre property, blocking an agreement that depended on city approval.

To protest the proposed data center, Tucson locals had organized The No Desert Data Center Coalition, an organization that “vehemently” opposed the Beale project. “Tucson made the right decision to halt Amazon’s harmful data center in its tracks and protect our water, air and a livable climate. We will remain vigilant because we know big corporations like Amazon, Beale and TEP [Tucson Electric Power] have a hard time taking no for an answer and we are committed to stopping any data center they try to force on us within our watershed.”

Beale Infrastructures had promoted Project Blue as a $3.6 billion investment that could generate $250 million in tax revenue, support 3,000 construction jobs and create about 180 permanent jobs. The plan envisioned multiple facilities built in phases, with the first two sites together requiring nearly 2,000 acre-feet of water per year, which would have made the facility Tucson Water’s largest customer.

But as the debate filled packed town hall meetings, residents voiced doubts that offsets would protect scarce water, and whether electric system upgrades would shift costs to residents already bracing for higher bills.

The Tucson pushback mirrors clashes over data centers across the country. Increasingly, residents are weighing the potential jobs and tax revenue gains against the strain on resources and the negative effect on quality of life of a large industrial park.

Among the many concerns by residents, higher electric costs are a particular challenge. Data centers can draw more power than mid-sized U.S. cities, so it’s hard to avoid significant rate increases for citizens given the increased demand.

Research firm Wood Mackenzie published a recent report that indicated 20 proposed or existing specialized rates for data centers in 16 states won’t offset the cost of new facilities. The result: utilities and other power providers must invoice data centers far more aggressively, or otherwise higher electricity costs are borne by residents.

In essence, for residents to pay higher electric bills to subsidize data centers that benefit tech giants is a wealth transfer that is profoundly unfair. So it’s no surprise that citizens across the country are actively working to create new options for proposed data center projects.

Oregon passed a law in June directing regulators to craft new, higher rates for data centers. New Jersey’s governor recently signed legislation ordering regulators to study whether residents face significant rate increases tied to data centers, and to design a specialized rate to cover this.

Texas has projected that electricity demand could exceed supply by summer 2026 and is exploring numerous options, including streamlining the disorganized integration of large loads from data centers. In Pennsylvania, which is seeing more interest among data center developers, the state utility commission is considering a specialized rate structure for power providers.

Whatever the outcome of these many new initiatives across the country, it’s clear that this conflict between residents and data centers is in early innings. Expect years of conflict ahead.