Christina Bohannan says no data center should come to an Iowa community over local opposition. The Democrat running for Congress in Iowa’s 1st District also wants to lower energy bills as data centers drive up demand for electricity.
“No data center should be allowed to come into our local communities. Take our water, take our electricity, drive up electricity costs against local opposition,” Bohannan said on a stop in Maquoketa Thursday.
Nearly 200 Iowa researchers say in the 2026 Iowa Climate Statement that data centers drive most of the state’s rising electricity demand, and that Iowa ranks among the top five states for data centers per capita.
Where does Bohannan stand on data centers?
Bohannan said she wouldn’t tell communities what to do.
“It’s their decision,” she said. “But we should not have a member of Congress who is putting a thumb on the scale for the data centers.”
She said US Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks has done that by voting for data center tax breaks in the 2025 federal budget law and for a bill that eases siting and permitting rules.
The Republican told Iowa News Now that communities should hold open forums where residents can question tech companies and elected officials, and that if their concerns aren’t addressed, “the community should make that decision.”
Asked about President Donald Trump’s remark that communities rejecting data centers are backward and poor, she said “communities know best what they need.”
What is her energy plan?
According to her campaign platform, she would crack down on utility monopolies and expand Iowa’s clean energy economy as ways to lower energy bills. It says Miller-Meeks’s votes against clean energy projects will raise Iowa utility bills by $345 a year and cost hundreds of jobs.
Miller-Meeks has supported moves that ensure large energy users like data centers are responsible for the costs of their operations.
How are data center power costs handled now?
Nearly all of Iowa’s largest existing and proposed data centers are served by two investor-owned utilities, Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy, and the Iowa Utilities Commission has allowed both to offer special rates to large new customers. The commission, a state body, approves those rates.
Alliant froze its base rates through late 2029 after a 2024 settlement, and says new data center demand helps spread fixed costs across more customers.
Iowa Business for Clean Energy argues Alliant is using confidential rate agreements with data centers to build gas plants without proving the need, and that households could end up paying if demand falls short. Alliant says its agreements make large users pay the full cost of serving them, and a business group says the costs still face regulatory review.
