https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2026/01/11/americas-ai-boom-is-running-into-an-unplanned-water-problem/. As utilities, state regulators, and local governments rush to accommodate a surge in data‑center construction driven by AI and cloud computing, water is emerging as a constraint that few permitting systems were designed to manage. The issue isn’t that data centers are unexpected. It’s that they have crossed a threshold of scale—yet are still being regulated as if they were ordinary real‑estate projects rather than nationally strategic infrastructure.