The government obviously has the power to regulate data centers. That's why people are petitioning them to do so, and why the lack of data transparency is frustrating. I'm not sure what argument you're making.
The point I made was that the water use is not a property of building a data centre, but of building a data centre without regulating water use. As such there are plenty of data centres that don't use much water.
That matters when considering what to regulate. A lot of people pushing for regulation are pushing for blocking data centres instead of regulating the externalities they claim is their issue.
I disagree. There is community opposition against individual data centers. There are calls for moratoriums until rules and regulations are improved. Calls for outright blocking data centers even with improved regulations are a small minority in my experience.
