Google, one of the world’s most powerful tech corporations, wants to plant a massive data center in Franklin Township. The proposed facility would consume 470 acres of farmland, cutting through South Post Road, East Troy Avenue, Davis Road, and Vandergriff Road. Franklin Township’s 65,700 residents may face the immediate environmental and financial burden of this potentially billion-dollar facility.
This fight is not isolated, and residents are organizing to stop it. The same political and corporate forces pushing the creation of the data center are tied to AES Indiana’s drive to raise electric rates across the city. The costs of corporate growth, higher bills, environmental damage, and displacement, are being shifted onto working-class ratepayers, while corporations like Google stand to profit.
The people foot the bill
Across the country, data centers have drawn widespread resistance due to their environmental damage and unchecked power usage. The history of data centers in the U.S. has been defined by unchecked expansion and backdoor deals, but communities have a growing history of public resistance to this, as we’ve seen in the case of the Franklin Township data center. Most recently, Elon Musk’s xAI “Grok”, a supercomputer facility in Memphis, sparked outrage when it was revealed to be running dozens of unpermitted gas turbines emitting nitric oxides and formaldehyde near predominantly Black neighborhoods. However, despite this public health impact and reckless use of technology, xAI announced that the Department of Defense partnered with the company by signing a $200 million contract to use its software, Grok.
The message is clear: residents are not fooled by empty promises of job creation or high-tech investment. They see a resource-draining facility that will hike their utility bills, damage the land, and give back little-to-nothing in return.
Opposition is growing
On July 16, the Metropolitan Development Commission heard from community members in support and opposition to the commission voting to rezone farmland in Franklin Township. Two documents submitted by groups against the data center include a Change.org petition and a letter from the Indianapolis Office of Sustainability.
There are currently over 3,500 signatures on the petition to stop construction on the data center. The organizers in Franklin Township who created the petition cite many of the same concerns that other communities across the country have experienced with data centers: utility bill increases, health concerns, minimal job additions, and environmental concerns.
The Indianapolis Office of Sustainability raised serious concerns over the high demand on energy and water needed for this facility and how it could affect multiple generations. The two power plants, approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, that will be repowered in the coming years could double AES Indiana’s carbon dioxide emissions by 2032. Indianapolis already ranks 11th in metropolitan areas (out of 208) for worst annual particle pollution.
AES makes customers pay
House Enrolled Act 1007, signed into law by Governor Mike Braun in May, requires large-load customers like a data center to incur 80% of the costs for energy infrastructure upgrades. The remaining 20% is supposed to be absorbed by the utility company, but instead, Hoosier consumers are seeing their monthly electric bill increase. To make it worse, Indiana law makes it illegal for anyone but five monopoly utilities to provide electricity. This includes AES, which is asking ratepayers to fund the cleanup of pollution they created over decades, instead of covering the costs itself.
AES Indiana has requested a rate review by the Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), a governor-appointed commission, to increase residential rates by 13.5%, citing inflation, sustainability, and grid reliability. The utility company, which has a monopoly on electricity in Marion County, has also announced plans to add two fossil fuel generators costing $4.4 billion each. One of which would be located in Franklin Township. Although the law requires utility companies to present usage plans and open public comment periods, AES has so far failed to schedule public meetings.
AES, the parent company of AES Indiana, has publicly celebrated its partnerships with data centers like Google’s proposed development in Franklin Township. A current case study on their website claims that Google’s data centers are supposedly combating climate pollution by partnering with AES to create “a holistic energy management solution that enables Google to not only meet their ambitious sustainability goals, but accelerate the widespread adoption of clean energy on a global scale.” This projection of “holistic energy management” has not produced any of its claims and stands in stark contrast to the reality of people who are without water and electricity due to data center usage.
The public responds
At an August 6 town hall, hosted by the Citizens Action Coalition (CAC), 30-40 residents were presented with the structural reality behind AES Indiana’s latest rate hike proposal. CAC’s Program Director Ben Inskeep explained that AES already has the highest fixed customer charge in Indiana and is now proposing the steepest increases for residential customers, while offering significantly smaller hikes for commercial and industrial users. “That’s a political choice,” he said. This increase is a direct consequence of policy decisions that prioritize corporate profit over public need.
Indiana’s regulatory and legal system is built to protect private utility monopolies, and not the public that uses their services. State law mandates that the IURC “shall approve” many utility proposals, effectively nullifying its role as a regulatory body. Utilities like AES are guaranteed returns of 10 percent, double the average 401(k), regardless of service quality or customer harm. Indiana also allows utilities to send unpaid bills to debt collectors, a practice banned in 47 other states, and the Republican supermajority has repeatedly blocked affordability programs or consumer protections. As CAC Executive Director Kerwin Olson put it plainly: “Electricity should be a human right. Instead, Indiana’s laws are written to ensure profit, no matter the human cost.”
Darcy’s story
Darcy, a resident who spoke to us after the town hall, offered a firsthand account of the crisis so many Hoosiers are facing. When her furnace failed during the winter, she relied on space heaters to get through the cold. Her electric bill skyrocketed to nearly $500. In the spring, her car was damaged in a flood, forcing her to take costly Uber rides to work. With income stretched thin and no real relief options available, she prioritized her mortgage and car repairs. By May, AES disconnected her power and refused to turn it back on unless she paid over $2,000 in full.
“I’ve basically been camping in my own home,” she said, lamenting a hot summer without cooling. “Battery-powered lights and fans cost me $20 a week, and that’s if I’m lucky.” She emphasized the broader injustice: “They give corporations tax breaks while we get the shutoffs.” Darcy’s story is not an anomaly; it’s an engineered crisis. It is the logical result of a system built to shield corporations and punish working-class residents.
Community impact
The battle over AES Indiana’s utility rate hikes is clearly connected to the struggle against the data center. In 2023 and 2024, more than 1,500 residents submitted formal comments opposing AES’s request to raise electric rates by over 13 percent. Community members packed two public hearings. Advocates like the Citizens Action Coalition brought data showing AES Indiana already had the highest disconnection rate in the state, with over 53,000 households losing power in just nine months. Despite this overwhelming pushback, AES moved forward with the increase, and the IURC allowed it with only minor concessions.
The outrage over rate hikes and environmental exploitation cannot be separated from the broader abandonment that working and oppressed people in Indiana are facing. An estimated 174,000 to 267,900 Hoosiers will lose Medicaid coverage due to the Trump Administration’s Big Beautiful Bill. Food insecurity continues to rise, especially among immigrant and multilingual households who face the highest barriers to healthcare, housing, and legal support. While the state slashed vital public safety nets, it offered 50-year tax exemptions to trillion-dollar tech corporations and their unchecked infrastructures like data centers. Meanwhile, residents are being forced to budget around higher electric bills so AES can fund new gas generators for Google’s data center. These priorities reflect a political choice to extract from the many to subsidize the few.
Take action
In Evansville, CAC’s organizing packed a hearing so full it ran past closing, showing that coordinated turnout can shift the balance of power. The Metropolitan Development Commission will meet Tuesday, August 20 at 1:00 pm to deliberate on the Franklin Township data center proposal. The community has already said no. So, while this meeting is a chance to reinforce that opposition for Franklin Township residents, CAC has planned four more public hearings for residents everywhere to confront state utility regulators more broadly. Two have been scheduled so far:
- Monday, August 18, 6:00 pm: Community Room, West Perry Branch Library (6650 S Harding St.)
- Thursday, August 21, 6:00 pm: Second‑Floor Auditorium, Southeast Community Services (901 Shelby St.)
Until September 2, CAC is collecting and submitting public comments to the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC), and you can also do the same. Residents across Indianapolis are making it clear: we see through it, and we won’t keep paying for it. Say no to price hikes, data centers, and the destruction of our communities and our planet!