Arkansans voice concerns for AI data center proposal | What to know

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Lots of noise and lots of heat. That's one way to describe those giant data centers and the debate over where to build them. That's how we're starting tonight on THV11 News at 10. I am Rolly Hoyt and Brooke Buckner has the night off. Big tech companies are building these huge buildings filled with computers. They power the AI learning models that answer our questions and promise much more as the technology improves. But, they take up a lot of space and they draw a lot of power and water and that has set up local battles when companies like Google try to build, including right here in Arkansas. And it's all making for a heated debate.

[00:00:34]THV11's Kathrine Roley talks to experts for guidance to help you sort it all out.

[00:00:40]How is this going to affect employment?

[00:00:42]Will it bring in new jobs? How many? Uh the second is how will this affect, uh you know, anything? Will it affect prices in some way?

[00:00:50]>> Economist Jerry Horpendahl says that some of the biggest questions circulating in communities with most people wanting to know, "How will these data centers affect the environment and public health?" Heat impacts from large AI data centers may extend that far out.

[00:01:05]That same research showed that surrounding temperatures increased an average of 3.6° with some areas seeing increases as high as 16.4°.

[00:01:16]These concerns may be valid, but supporters say that projects will create more job opportunities.

[00:01:22]However, Professor Horpendahl says that he examined the data and believes the trade-offs might not be worth it.

[00:01:28]>> suggests those are actually going to be fairly small. Um it'll add some jobs, but you know, not as many as if it was a manufacturing facility of the same size. So, maybe a few hundred jobs rather than a few thousand. He also looked at how these new centers would affect energy rates.

[00:01:44]And although they require massive amounts of water and electricity, he says it may not change your bill that much.

[00:01:50]>> Those maybe raise electricity prices by 1 or 1 and 1/2%.

[00:01:54]Uh in total, that's not even annual ongoing. That's a That's a one-time increase. They're paying for any upgrades to the infrastructure, which then those benefits get spread over all the users. Property tax revenue is another area that could see a massive impact. The data centers pay half of the property taxes for the county, and they've been able to reduce property taxes by 40% over the past 10 years. He says Arkansas' lower energy costs have already attracted data center companies, which could lessen the need for large tax incentives. I think Arkansas is already well-positioned enough that we don't probably don't need to offer huge tax breaks to them. Little Rock, Kathleen Roark, THV 11 News.