2026-10-27 · contested story

Underwater data centers may be coming to the U.S.—smack in the middle of endangered whale habitat

A Needham, Massachusetts luxury real estate developer named Louis Wolfson, through his company DeepGreen Holdings LLC, has proposed two massive underwater, tidal-powered AI data centers off U.S. coasts—one in the Gulf of Maine near Eastport and one in Alaska's Cook Inlet. Both proposed sites, as Scientific American put it, sit 'smack in the middle of two endangered whale populations' habitats'—North Atlantic right whales (fewer than 400) in Maine and a distinct population of roughly 300 critically endangered beluga whales in Cook Inlet. Developers pitch the concept as energy-efficient (tidal power is 'free, continuous, and completely predictable') and water-saving, since seawater provides free cooling. Environmentalists, marine scientists, Indigenous tribes (notably the Passamaquoddy), commercial fishermen, and local governments counter that acoustic disturbance from turbines and construction, plus thermal and potential copper pollution, threaten already-fragile marine populations. Eastport issued a moratorium; Cook Inletkeeper, the Center for Biological Diversity, and a commercial fisheries alliance are intervening at FERC.

How each side frames it

left
"This goes against every concept that our people have been handed down for thousands of years — to take care of our mother"
"This man (Wolfson) is a one‑percenter. He doesn't care about us. There's a reason he isn't building it in Cape Cod, where he lives, and he's choosing Eastport."
"You could probably put a 100-ton excavator or some, like, massive machine on the bottom, and the tide would roll that around until it's crushed like a little Tonka truck."
"Unprecedented quantities of wealth are now concentrated within an incestuous, inscrutable network of companies that all purport to be involved in making artificial intelligence"
"Nobody has any idea what AI electricity usage in data centers is going to be in three to four years"
center
"The Kenai Peninsula Borough has already filed to intervene but has not taken a position for or against the project."
"Copper can harm aquatic organisms at sufficiently high concentrations, including salmon. However, the amount of copper the proposed equipment might release, if any, has not been established."
"the agencies said climate change is the biggest threat to the right whales. They and other scientific agencies say there is no evidence that offshore wind preparation work is harming or killing whales."
"This legislation is critical to ensuring the long-term stability of American fisheries for generations to come"
"We can imagine that we have thousands of hydrophones along the cable recording data continuously"
right
"To put all of this in jeopardy in response to sloppy or agenda-driven science is unconscionable"
"The Rice's whales have been a cudgel anti-fossil fuel activists have used to impede oil and gas development"
"They want to kneecap our processing power to win the AI race"
"If everybody talks about data centers, too much heat, too much noise, too much water, all that, that was 20 years ago"
"opposing data centers has rapidly become a unifying cause across a broad coalition of some of the nation's most ardent left-wing activist groups, who have made it their mission to disrupt this innovation at all costs"

What each side left out

The right left out — covered by the Scientific American & Boston Globe & Peninsula Clarion
The right left out — covered by the Scientific American
The left left out — covered by the Fox News & Just The News & City Journal
The left left out — covered by the New York Post & Fox News & Vox
The center left out — covered by the The New Republic & Boston Globe
The right left out — covered by the Los Angeles Times & Boston Globe

What's actually true?

[verified] The Trump administration is considering two proposals for massive underwater data centers—one in Cook Inlet, Alaska, and one in the Gulf of Maine—both in endangered whale habitats
[verified] North Atlantic right whale numbers have dropped below 400 individuals
[verified] A distinct population of around 300 critically endangered beluga whales lives in Cook Inlet and relies almost entirely on echolocation due to turbid water
[verified] Microsoft's Project Natick underwater data center had a lower failure rate than comparable land-based systems
[unverified] When ship noise decreased after 9/11, right whales in the Gulf of Maine had lower levels of stress hormones
[verified] Global data centers used 448 trillion watt-hours of electricity last year, consuming about 1.2 trillion gallons of water, with use projected to double in four years
[verified] Nearly seven in ten Americans (71%) say they oppose constructing data centers for AI in their local area, per a Gallup poll
[verified] DeepGreen's Cook Inlet application describes roughly 330-350 tidal turbines and 66 underwater computing modules with about 100 megawatts generation capacity, using copper-nickel cooling fins

The narrative clash

Whether the Rice's whale is a legitimately endangered distinct species
Left: Endangered Rice's whales live their entire lives in the gulf, where they're vulnerable to vessel strikes, noise pollution, oil spills and climate change — all of which could increase with more drilling
Right: if the Rice's whale isn't a distinct species, then they're a variation of the Bryde's whale, which are generally not considered endangered
Whether data center environmental concerns (heat, noise, water) are legitimate or outdated
Left: AI data centers on land can increase the nearby land surface temperature — between 2.7 and 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit, on average
Right: too much heat, too much noise, too much water, all that, that was 20 years ago... we've got air-cooled technology and obviously the chip technology's advanced
Who or what drives data-center opposition
Left: Democrats, Republicans, and independents all oppose by significant margins a center being built near where they live; three-quarters of Americans overall oppose nearby data center development
Right: opposing data centers has rapidly become a unifying cause across a broad coalition of some of the nation's most ardent left-wing activist groups
Whether data center water use is a serious problem
Left: residents and local reporting have linked data center growth to increased blackouts and water restrictions
Right: most Santa Clara data centers use recycled water... Using recycled water, he said, keeps a data center's water footprint to a minimum
Who is actually driving the opposition — a local community, or a national left-wing campaign
Left: The resistance is townspeople and the Passamaquoddy tribe objecting to an absentee wealthy developer who would never site this off his own coast.
Right: The resistance is an organized coalition of left-wing activist groups that has adopted data centers as its next obstruction target.

52 sources analyzed

The Boston Globe Scientific American Newsday New York Post Fox News Vox PBS NewsHour Newsday Just The News Fox News The Boston Globe Los Angeles Times Newsday Just The News City Journal The New Republic Los Angeles Times Peninsula Clarion Investor's Business Daily City Journal The Boston Globe The Washington Post Newsday New York Post Fox News The Boston Globe Los Angeles Times Just The News Fox News The New Republic Los Angeles Times New York Post City Journal Vox PBS NewsHour Investor's Business Daily City Journal Vox The Washington Post New York Post The New Republic The Washington Post Just The News The New Republic PBS NewsHour Investor's Business Daily Vox The Washington Post Investor's Business Daily MSNBC PBS NewsHour MSNBC

Perspectivity reads the coverage — not just who published it.

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