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Communities hosting hyperscale data centers are seeing benefits even while the protests grow.
"New recreational spaces, water and wastewater infrastructure, traffic lights, build-outs of local roads and grants for schools were among the pluses for communities hosting them.
"Our roads around our data centers are beautiful," said Etta Lockey, director of Commercial Energy Supply, Meta, also known as Facebook, Instagram, What's App and maker of novel hardware such as tech glasses.
"Growth can pay for growth," she cited at the 16th annual Marcellus Shale Coalition INSIGHT 2026 in Erie.
"My team is responsible for bringing the high voltage and electrons to our data centers in partnership with our utilities and energy development partners," she said.
The goal, she said, is "not to shift costs onto the families in the communities where the data centers exist."
Meta also has placed a priority on its commitment to the community and ongoing community engagement.
"None of this is possible without our communities more than the jobs that data center development can support, we want to be good neighbors and good community partners," she said.
This is done through hiring local contractors, boosting local tax revenue, paying for local infrastructure, and adding new energy to the grid, she added.
This phenomena is where electrons and molecules are meeting the real economy.
The workers, the townships, the utilities, the producers, a consortium of folks that have been powering the U.S. for generations are now having to address national AI dominance and meet demand.
To do this right, developers need community partners who are seeing the upside and serving as home to some of the most innovative technology in the world.
Meta, she noted, provides millions of dollars in grants year after year to support schools and nonprofits.
In fact, Meta has given $94 million supporting over 3,700 grants and communities where it has data centers around the globe.
One criteria screened for site selection is the availability of natural gas
"We are also investing in partnerships and solutions that reduce the footprint over time," Lockey said. That includes support for U.S.-produced low methane natural gas.
At Meta, energy innovation has become as important as software or chip innovation.
The evolution of artificial intelligence is changing how thoughts are evolving on infrastructure, pushing innovation at every layer, Lockey said.
For those in Appalachia, this presents an enormous opportunity.
"We have the resources, we have the expertise and the workforce to help meet that demand," said Jim Welty, president of Marcellus Shale Coalition
Meta is a company helping drive a new era of energy demand, he said.
Lockey, an attorney by training, continues to lead efforts to secure the affordable, reliable energy needed to support the company's growing data infrastructure, he said.