NEW SHOW: America’s Data Center Revolt is JUST BEGINNING – IN YOUR BACKYARD

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2:39Let me tell you about what we're going to be doing here with this new show, In Your Backyard. And this comes from your popular demand. And every two weeks, we are going to be unpacking how public policy and political failings are playing out in communities around the country. Hence, in your backyard, from data centers to forever chemicals to insane utility costs and more. In Your Backyard will be hosted by Luke Radel, one of the Midas Touch Network's new hosts, a rising star here at the network. And he's going to be talking to experts and candidates and elected officials and the real people who are experiencing the very real consequences and fighting back.

3:31I mean, you often hear the expression, the kitchen table issues. And I would also add to that the in your backyard, in your community, in front of your door type issues. And it was Senator Bernie Sanders who told me earlier in this horrific Trump regime. He said, Ben, the thing you need to know is that the issues that are most important to the American people are the ones that do not get any attention in the media. The issues that are getting unnoticed by corporate news, those are the issues that matter most to the American people. A horrible Bernie Sanders impression, but an incredibly critical, I would say, existential point that he makes.

4:15And it's always played a major role foundationally into what we do here at the Midas Touch Network to talk about the issues that I know are most on your mind. The kitchen table issues, the in your backyard issues, the outside of your front door type of issues that you see, that you experience, that this Trump regime inflicts upon you. So in our inaugural episode, what are you going to see other than me say inaugural like someone who grew up from Long Island, which I did? Well, Luke Radel will dig into what's driving the massive pushback to data centers that's driving a movement throughout the country.

4:57as Trump claims that we need more data centers everywhere, a data center in everybody's backyard. Trump and the MAGA Republicans are now campaigning on as Howard Lutnick tries to claim, what? They don't even take up any water, no water consumption, which we know is the biggest lie. These people lie so freaking horribly. But communities are rejecting them throughout this country. Donald Trump says, if you reject data centers, You are backwards, you are poor, and you are not someone that Donald Trump thinks is intelligent. That's what he said. That's what Donald Trump said. So what do people on the ground actually think?

5:38Luke Radle will hear from individuals on the front lines of the fight against data centers in Tennessee and in Texas. And he interviews Texas gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa. We've had her on the Midas Touch Network a few times. What a compelling candidate she is. And she's interviewed by Luke about why data centers have become a central issue in her race. The central issue. Hint, hint. Governor Abbott, the MAGA Republican extremist, he basically said, data centers, come on in. Let me give you tax breaks. Let me lavish you with gifts. Ravage our state data centers. Texas will become the data center capital.

6:23That's what Abbott said. That's what Trump said. That's what all these MAGA said inside of Texas. And now they're like, oh, we didn't say that. We didn't say that. That wasn't us. It was people who looked like us. It wasn't us. Anyway, tell us what you think of our inaugural episode in your backyard. Tell us what issues are playing out in your backyard that you'd like to see covered here on the Midas Touch Network on future episodes. Thanks so much. And here's our first episode of In Your Backyard.

7:22shows that three and five want any data center const their backyard. That is u just March. It's become s issue that Jason Kelsey r encouraging folks to send the data centers. AI data millions of gallons of wa That's why liquid death and garage beer decided to team up. We want your pee to cool these data centers. We've obviously been hearing a lot of the concerns about the use of water, the use of power and just the general disruption to the community that data centers can cause. With that said, despite major pushback, there's one person who has been very supportive of data centers and continues to be and that's our president.

8:13Just recently, he posted on his Truth Social platform the following, quote, The only reason that communities throughout the USA should not want data centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let data reign. The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them. If we kill the golden goose, you will only have yourselves to blame. China could not be happier with this anti-data center movement. Actually, they can't believe it is happening. He signed that President DJT. So we thought to start off this brand new series, we're going to explore some of the pressing environmental issues and community issues facing the construction of data centers.

9:03First, let's head to Memphis, Tennessee, where I spoke to Latresia Adams of Young, Gifted, and green about the work that she's been doing to fight data centers coming into her community. She gave me a crash course on all the damage that a hyperscale data center can do in her backyard. Let's take a listen. Tell me a little bit about what's happening where you live. Yeah. So, Memphis, there is a lot going on in a myriad of ways. But essentially, we have been dealing with a hyperscale data center now almost like two and a half years. It came by surprise, meaning that back in June 2024, we literally all learned about XAI, which now I guess is Space XAI with Colossus I and now Colossus II.

9:59I'll talk about that later in South Haven, Mississippi across state line. But with this mammoth project was really able to circumvent a lot of traditional processes that you would typically have to go under at the local level. So they were able to circumvent our land use protocol, which typically with any type of development, especially at that scale, you would have to submit an application, and get a recommendation from our land use control board. It would be voted up or down by our city council folks, right? So we were really robbed of democracy and essentially people who were on our ballots that were selected to be the decision makers for our city.

10:49They didn't even have an opportunity to do that. And so in the beginning with Colossus, one with these methane gas turbines, they were not permitted. They were not required to put pollution controls. So that means for 24 hours every single day, these methane gas turbines, dozens of them, were emitting and still currently emitting pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and formaldehyde. Ah! Like, when I think about formaldehyde, I think about, like, embalming. Right? Like for dead people. Yes. Not for people living in your neighborhood. I want to back up a little bit for folks because a lot of names and people involved here, but if people recognize the name SpaceX, X, XAI, that's the company run by Elon Musk, right?

11:45Yes, indeed. Indeed. So you have the richest man in the world taking over your backyard and building these facilities, which he is calling Colossus, a little on the nose, talk to folks in case the name doesn't drive it home about just how big these data centers are. Yeah. So, you know, and now in 2026, fast forward, you know, we were able to get a slim win, if you want to call it that, in Memphis, where we were really adamant in Memphis about, you know, this air pollution, the proximity to residential communities. But then after we were able to get XAI to decommission some of the turbines that they had set up in Memphis, they just went right next door across state line in South Haven, Mississippi, with even more turbines.

12:47At least at this point, they were going up to 60-some-odd turbines. So even worse than what they had set up in Memphis. But the issue is we share the air. Sure you have an arbitrary state line, but air goes anywhere it wants to go. And so now you start to see an exacerbation of air pollution on top of the legacy pollution right that already existed there now both in Memphis and in South Haven, Mississippi. So it seems like pollutants aren't necessarily being respectful of state borders, obviously. It's just lines on a map. Talk to me, you mentioned the legacy pollution. This is a community that has a history of air quality issues.

13:36Talk a little bit more about that and what are residents telling you about their feelings, about how pissed off they are, about all the development that's going on near you. Excuse my language. Yeah, no, no. So essentially in this zip code for this community, which has Box Town and a community called Westwood and right kind of next door is a community called Riverside, which is very important. So where XAI is located is in what you would call an industrial corridor. So right beside XAI is the Tennessee Valley Authority or TVA's power plant. You also have right up the road, still in 38109, you have Valero, which is an oil refinery that so happens to be right beside Dr.

14:33Martin Luther King Park. Like, wow, this is not the dream. This is not the dream. And so some of the, you know, like PM2 particulate matter, ozone, like these are already existing pollution issues that exist, not even just within 3A109, because again, we don't share the air, but there's been a history with attainment being in compliance for the tri-state area. So where Memphis sits, it touches both Arkansas and it touches Mississippi. And again, what happens on one side of the state line, I mean, the air travels, you know, right next door. And so, you know, adding on additional pollutants, especially like pollutants that are this concentrated that we haven't experienced before, you know, we haven't even had a chance to really truly assess the depth and breadth of how much damage this may have caused to people who are already sick.

15:40So N3A109 is a cancer cluster. So there's a significant amount of people who also have respiratory issues. So I even think about like my personal family. This is before XAI even came into this community my family is in 3A 109 my dad passed away um at literally just 65 years old um his mother passed away my grandmother my last living grandparent died six months after he passed away also from respiratory type of you know chronic illnesses and so this unfortunately is not just a story that is just specific to me it's not an anomaly like if you talk to other people within the community they've experienced the exact same things cancer asthma even in some instances renal failure because a lot of these pollutants also impact kidney health i mean just the you know a litany of all of these different chronic illnesses in a community that's already experiencing economic distress.

16:49And we know that the healthcare in the United States is not the best, very expensive, and that's just tough for people that are already struggling as it is. Well, and obviously I'm very sorry for your loss and for your family's loss and the loss of so many folks in your community. These are life and death issues for so many people and it often goes beyond politics, but talking a little bit about the politics, you're from Tennessee, you're from Memphis. So I don't know if there were a lot of folks there who were supporting the president, but statewide, there certainly were. Same thing next door in Mississippi.

17:27When you're talking to folks, maybe some of them did vote for the president. He's been very supportive of data centers. Are they in line with his position on that? Or is that an area where you're able to work across party lines and find some common ground with folks? Yeah, I'm really glad that you asked that question. We've been calling this phenomenon partnerships with unlikely allies. It's been so interesting, particularly working between Memphis and South Haven. South Haven has a really, I'll say, colorful history, particularly as it relates to black people. I just have to be candid. And so what we have seen is really working across like racial boundaries, working across like economic boundaries.

18:16We have one common thing. We do not like these data centers or at least like how they've been rolled out, you know, without any type of precautions, without community input, draining our resources. I know specifically, you know, beyond just the air quality issues that were raised a lot in Memphis and South Haven, the noise is abysmal. Yeah. Like, you know, my heart breaks for women who are postpartum to have newborns. You know, newborns sleep a lot because they're growing, you know, and it literally imagined like multiple jets, jet engines in your backyard. going 24 hours a day you know so it it has been you know i hate that this was the thing you know that brought us together because i don't wish harm on anybody but it really is eye-opening i think for everyone you know particularly regardless of political you know affiliation um i know specifically with south haven is interesting because there is some part of the city and we see this across the country, particularly in rural communities, being fearful for land, land loss, land that has been in folks' families, you know, for generations potentially being at risk.

19:48So we're all mad about the same thing and united together on it. Well, Latrice, I really appreciate your time and thank you so much for sharing your story with me today. I really appreciate it. Thank you. When it comes to the weather, to the barbecue, and to the politics, there's no place hotter right now than the great state of Texas. Everything is bigger in Texas, including the issue of data centers, where the governor, Greg Abbott, has tried to reverse course on the issue of data centers. We're going to speak to his opponent in that race in a moment, but first, I want to show you some of what real people have to say about what's happening in their backyards on this issues.

20:24First, I want to talk to you about Tom Weeks, who lives in Granbury. He's a retiree and a lifelong Republican, but now he's a single issue voter. That issue is data centers. With the people that are directly affected, it is. People just, they're at a point, a lot of them where I'm at, they're just sick and tired of this. We've been listening to this noise for three years. And we're not getting a break. It's gone beyond politics. It's a people issue. It really is. And like I said, my party, I've been a Republican my entire voting life. And I've been given the finger by my party. I also talked to Andrew Howard, who lives in South Texas, the Rio Grande Valley.

21:20And he's been organizing against data centers in his community. And his job takes him to all different parts of the state where he hears very similar complaints from folks across the aisle. The long-term jobs is only 50 to 100 people. And they're going to take all your water, 1 million to 5 million. I don't know how much a 2 gigawatt data center does, but 1 million to 5 million gallons a day. It's going to raise your electricity bill. and it's going to make a lot of noise. Apparently it's an industrial hum. I never knew about that until two weeks ago. And I was like, okay, that makes sense. I never thought of it.

21:56I should have thought of it, but that's what I learned from people that were telling me about it. So where does all this political energy go? This outrage about data centers coming in to the state of Texas? Well, I caught up with Gina Hinojosa, who is the Democrat running to replace Greg Abbott as governor of Texas. And I asked her about this issue, which might be the defining fight in this critical battleground race. And if she's governor, what she will do differently than Governor Abbott. Here's my conversation with Gina Hinojosa. Thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate it. We are focusing on data centers for this first episode of In Your Backyard.

22:34I want you to lay out for folks what your position on data centers is and what you would do in regards to data centers if you are elected the next governor of Texas. Yes, well, we have real urgency in Texas. Texas has become the epicenter for data centers. The epicenter in the world, Greg Abbott announced it as such at the end of last year and invited in all these data centers with the most generous tax breaks in the whole country. They pay, for instance, no tax on any electricity they consume. And we know they guzzle electricity. So there's this mad rush right now to get into Texas. So I've called on him to issue a moratorium until the legislature can meet and put real protections in place.

23:19He has yet to do it, even though he has the sole power to stop this madness. And let me go over some of these protections that we need to have in place. Some of the worst offenders of these data centers are shipping in foreign labor to build them. Right. If this is about jobs, they should be American Union jobs, because these global corporations, multinational corporations that own these data centers have the power that workers don't have. So you need to have an organized labor force that pushes back against them. They are guzzling our electricity and our water. There are no rules in Texas. We need real protections when it comes to water and electricity.

24:05They should pay for themselves. The tax breaks that Greg Abbott signed into law need to go away. We need to repeal that law. They are owned by the richest men in the world. It is unconscionable that taxpayers should have to pay for them. I believe when that happens, it slows it way down because it's real easy to be building these data centers when you're not footing the bill for the cost of it. And then finally, when it comes to AI, there are here no guardrails, no laws, no protections for people either. Our governor has begun converting public schools into AI schools in Texas, replacing teachers with computers.

24:48Nobody wants that. There should not be AI replacing us. AI should be a tool in the workplace, not a replacement for human labor, especially not when it comes to interacting with our kids. when it comes to medical decisions, when it comes to life, health or safety. But again, there are just no rules in Texas right now. And so Texans are mad. We've seen in deep red counties where people who have voted for Trump, voted for Greg Abbott in the past say, no more. We're done. We're breaking ranks and we're voting for you, Gina. So that is the opportunity in this election. But the data centers are the latest physical embodiment of a governor who works for the moneyed special interests and not the people of Texas.

25:38So it fits in with this theme of who Greg Abbott is. And we're just hammering that every day on this campaign trail. Talk to me a little bit about what you would want to see the legislature do when they come back into session. You mentioned some of those restrictions. But do you think for the time being they should just place a moratorium on data center construction in your state? Greg Abbott has the power to do that. So he should do so. Yes, I've called on him to do that now until some real protections can be put into place. Some laws can be put into place. And I just went through those laws that, the kind of laws that we need.

26:13But because we are starting from scratch when it comes to any regulation of these data centers, there's just a lot. I mean, I mentioned the big, big ticket items, but just to give you more of a sense of how bad it is. Many of these data centers are in rural communities where there's just no rules, no regulations about development, protections for people. And what I heard in these communities is they just want a seat at the table. They want to be able to decide if and how these data centers come into their communities. So empowering people with that voice and that participation in these decisions is also an essential part of the laws that need to pass to protect Texans.

27:03And you're saying essentially before we move on from this point that before if those restrictions are not put in place and there shouldn't be any more data centers built in your statement there's already so many that have been built and under construction. That's right absolutely and it's not that I hate data centers it's that I hate the way they are taking advantage of Texans It's that I hate the way Greg Abbott is allowing this to happen. And so that is my position. You mentioned that issue of local control. That feels like it could be something that resonates with even conservative Republican voters in your state.

27:35Texas often seems like the kind of place that wants to have that sort of independence and not have government control, telling them what to do in their local communities. What have you been hearing from Texans out on the campaign trail about this idea that the state government is coming in and overriding what they want in their individual towns and communities? They're angry about it. And this data center issue has created the real urgency about it because they're finding that they're blocked from having any say in these decisions. Their elected officials are even blocked from having any say in these decisions because of laws that Greg Abbott has signed into being.

28:13So this has tested those restrictions on local communities and their power. This data center issue has tested that, and the results are people are mad. Talk a little bit. You mentioned the special interests who are involved on this issue. That has played such a major role, particularly with campaign finance. What are some of the names of the folks who have been backing your opponent, the incumbent governor, Greg Abbott? And frankly, do you think that the money they've given to him and to his campaign has compromised his position and his actions on this issue? Yes, he has received$20 million,$20 million from data center interests.

28:57It's too many to name all of them, but the ones I remember are Harlan Crow and Elon Musk, some names that we know out there, but there's just a lot. And we've put out some social media about it so that people understand where this money is coming from. I was also in Loudoun County, Virginia. Northern Virginia has pitched itself as kind of the data center capital of the world. You mentioned how Governor Abbott is trying to rival the amount of data centers that we've seen in Northern Virginia. What do you say to folks who have that concern that if these data centers aren't built in Texas, then those jobs, that economic development will go elsewhere.

29:38We'll go to another state where there aren't as many restrictions or there are more tax breaks. What do you say to that? Yeah, look, of course, we want good jobs in Texas. And I will acknowledge that there are people who are making good money building data centers. I mean, some of our union allies are talking about how they're making six figures over again, right, building these data centers. And at a time in this economy when it's just hard to make ends meet, I get it. But we can't throw our communities under the bus to have good jobs. Like we have to find a way forward that creates good jobs and that protects Texans and protects our communities.

30:26And we just don't have any semblance of that right now in Texas. And so I reject the notion that it's either or. It should be good economic policy should be about good jobs. Yes, but also good protecting people, right? Good policies for people and communities. And that's my commitment. The other thing that struck me seeing those data centers in Loudoun County was just, I don't know how ugly they are. They're very big, large industrial buildings. They're loud. They just take up such a presence in a community. Have you been hearing from people who maybe aren't opposed to the idea of having this type of development in their backyards, but are concerned about the way their community will look?