Data centers are increasingly making headlines for the serious problems they create for the communities where they are proposed and built, as well as for the resistance from people who live there, who refuse to accept the rising energy bills, noise and air pollution, and strains on water infrastructure that inevitably accompany these new neighbors.
On Tuesday, February 10, I moderated a webinar, “From Community to Congress: Advocating on AI Data Centers,” that broke down the (de)regulatory landscape of data centers, along with Jim Walsh and Michelle Allen from Food and Water Watch, Brooke Butler of Anthropocene Alliance, and Amy Adams with the Southeast Climate and Energy Network.
We co-developed this webinar as environmental justice advocates standing alongside communities up against Big Tech and their legal, political, and economic allies in the push to deregulate and accelerate the development of these centers nationwide. From utility companies profiting off of large capital and infrastructure buildouts (e.g. methane gas plants to power data centers), the surveillance state and military-industrial complex utilizing AI technology, the fossil fuel industry, and Wall Street investors propping up a “frothy” industry based on fragile asset-backed securities and debt, we are seeing the same old relations of profit, extraction, and domination play out with new, overhyped technologies.
From the perspective of the residential communities where these centers are built or proposed, long-term health impacts are a significant concern. As advocates, we need more studies on cumulative effects from industrial activities, including noise, air, and water pollution, and contributions to extreme heat. Data centers lack transparency across the board: in the development process (for example, there’s often a lack of public notice as the process proceeds), in the zoning and permitting process (with non-disclosure agreements), in the use of shell corporations to hide insidious business practices, and in data analysis around actual water and energy use, as well as the (often misleading) economic benefits they promise to communities.
This lack of information and range of harms are why some people are calling for a moratorium on data centers until we have federal, state, and local laws in place to protect us. A moratorium would allow for a thorough impact review and regulations to address environmental, public health, and resource consumption concerns. Given these issues and the tech industry’s aggressive push to expand data centers across the country, we need our representatives and senators in DC to support a moratorium until we have all the data we need to move forward — data centered around the needs and desires of communities most impacted by data centers.
The February 10 webinar was a hybrid overview of why a federal data center moratorium is needed; the current policy levers, blocks, and opportunities at the federal level; and a “how-to guide” on communicating with congressional officials. In the training portion, Michelle provided tools and skills to coordinate a local district meeting with an individual’s respective federal policymakers, educate them about harms data centers are having on their communities, and urge them to stand up for people and families, rather than only doing the bidding of the tech industry.
Michelle’s training included a thorough overview of “before, during, and after” the congressional meeting, including information on scheduling the meeting, who to invite, developing a power map, covering the issue in the press, and even what to do in case of no response from congressional staff. She added details about how to ask relevant questions about the decision-maker during the meeting, such as their existing stance on data centers and what they might need to support a moratorium. Importantly, her training also included information on maintaining relationships with staffers by inviting them to educational events or town halls or otherwise continuing to engage them on data center issues post-meeting.
You can watch a recording of the webinar by clicking here or pressing “play” on the embedded video below.
