53% of Americans are highly concerned about AI’s environmental impact.

Concern over artificial intelligence’s environmental footprint is rising sharply in the United States as the rapid construction of data centers puts electricity grids, water supplies and local infrastructure under greater scrutiny.

A new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and University of Chicago Energy Policy Institute poll finds that 53% of US adults are “extremely” or “very” concerned about AI’s environmental impact, up from 41% in 2025. The survey questioned 3,424 adults between July 6 and 24, with a margin of sampling error of 2.2 percentage points.

The concern extends beyond AI itself. About six in ten Americans support limiting the number of new data centers that can be built, including majorities of both Democrats and Republicans. A majority are also highly concerned about their effects on local electricity prices and water supplies. Roughly two-thirds support requiring data centers to obtain their electricity from clean-energy sources.

The underlying infrastructure challenge is substantial. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that data centers could consume almost 12% of total US electricity by 2030, with its latest scenarios ranging from 9.5% to 15.3%. Water presents a more localized problem. Data centers are not among the country’s largest water users nationally, but large campuses can place significant pressure on smaller municipal supplies, particularly where water-intensive cooling systems are used.

The findings arrive as the Trump administration continues promoting large-scale US AI infrastructure while simultaneously backing a voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge intended to keep the cost of new data-center power infrastructure from being shifted onto households.