These 2 Cities Are Pushing Back on Data Centers. Here's What They're Worried About

Corin Cesaric is a Flex Editor at CNET. She received her bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Before joining CNET, she covered crime at People Magazine and national and international news at NBC Local Television Stations.

Amid a nationwide rush by AI companies to build data centers to support their feverish growth, and by many locales to attract them, some cities are saying whoa, not so fast.

That's the case in both St. Louis and St. Charles, Missouri, two cities just 30 minutes apart in the heart of the country.

On Aug. 22, St. Charles imposed, in a unanimous vote by the city council, a one-year moratorium on new data center construction after news broke about a ...