Former Democratic senator Sherrod Brown is facing scrutiny over an apparent shift in his stance on data centres as he seeks to return to the US Senate. Fox News reports that he previously welcomed Amazon’s data-centre expansion in Ohio but now opposes further development, highlighting the political significance of rapidly growing concerns about energy use and household utility bills.

The article says Brown praised an Amazon data centre in 2015, while his current campaign position attributes higher electricity costs to such facilities. Data centres have become a contentious issue in communities across the US because of their substantial power demands, environmental concerns and potential effects on local infrastructure.