Data Centers

Data Centers Are Threatening Our Communities

The growth in the development of data centers to feed artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly threatening our communities by contributing to higher electric bills and more pollution associated with climate change, plus using excessive amounts of water. In the space of a few years, we’ve seen a proliferation of data centers due in large part to AI. To protect our communities, we need safeguards in place to protect us from the impacts Big Tech’s power needs. 

A data center is basically a building that contains powerful computers and digital storage. They are used for email, social media, streaming services, and online commerce. Increasingly they are associated with the deployment of AI. That has meant the size of these buildings and the electricity they consume has grown enormously, frequently consuming as much electricity as a small city.

CLIMATE Utilities are rushing to build gas and the administration has promised to bring zombie coal plants back, all to meet the needs of data centers, putting critical climate progress at risk due to the significant climate pollution from these fossil fuel power plants. 

POLLUTION Big data centers use huge diesel generators – in some cases bigger than utility power plants! And while those are supposed to be for emergencies only, they might start running a lot more, they’re huge sources of soot and particulates, and can be massive water users. The gas plants being built to feed these data centers emit enormous amounts of pollution into the air, including hazardous air pollutants. 

GUARDRAILS We need to ensure that utilities, and their regulators, are putting common sense guardrails around growth. Those guardrails include binding rates (“large load tariffs”), making sure that the data center is required to pay for services and rate allocation to make sure that data centers are paying their own way. This also includes big tax breaks for data centers – those should be eliminated.

TRANSPARENCY We need state, federal, and local transparency requirements telling us how much power data centers are going to use so we can plan together, and call out problems before they happen. Likewise, we need transparency on impacts to our air and water. 

BUY CLEAN Data center developers must buy the vast majority of their power from additional, new, and local renewable energy and storage projects that meet their requirements around the clock (“24/7 clean energy”). Utilities and regulators can require data centers to pay for new clean energy projects. 

STOP BAD PROJECTS Bad projects that are going to increase customer costs, put diesel generators in environmental justice communities and neighborhoods, trigger utilities to buy big new gas, coal, or nuclear, or use water irresponsibly must be stopped. 

Check out our national page on these issues.
Demanding Better: Holding Tech Companies Accountable to learn more.