Here's What To Do If A Data Center Is Coming To Your Hometown 📊 🏭
It seems that data centers strike a chord with people (for many reasons), but one point that is being driven home is: is the promise of AI worth destroying our home?
If you don’t yet have a data center proposed in your town, now is the time to prepare and start asking questions to your local policymakers.
We’ve all heard people repeat statistics about CHAT GPT using a massive amount of water or about data centers emitting massive amounts of carbon. These facilities can place serious environmental burdens on nearby communities across the United States. But focusing only on viral statistics can sometimes obscure the deeper story about where these infrastructures are built, who bears the pollution, and how digital technologies reshape local ecosystems.
What we know for sure is that AI data centers are causing increased noise, air, and water pollution, and escalating utility bills—across the country. But the truth is, we need to begin preparing ourselves for the reality of this industry and for how we can empower our communities to take action if a data center is coming to their town.
Data centers are the next frontier of environmental injustice. And in the state of the climate crisis, how will society respond? Whether we like it or not, data centers are being rapidly built, and we have to be ready to have critical conversations.
Big Tech is not going to meet its sustainability goals with data centers. It’s A Flop
Big tech companies all pledged to use 100% renewable energy, but with AI data centers, they’re grabbing any power source they can, using a mix of natural gas, diesel, coal, and nuclear energy. Many companies, like Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft, have pledged to use 100% renewable energy but have invested billions of dollars in AI powered by dirty energy.
The demand for energy is at an all-time high. Some studies have found that emissions from tech companies have increased since 2020, raising the alarm that operations are unlikely to slow and will only worsen as they invest rapidly in data centers. I, personally, have been quite alarmed by how quickly AI has been implemented on social media platforms and Gmail. I mean, as users, we don’t have the power to opt out of these services anymore, since they are now embedded in everyday usage.
Data Graph from Green America (Source)
But there is hope. There has been growing momentum to stall or withdraw data center development, thanks to communities coming together. And while the phrase “we have to work together” is great in theory, how does that actually look? We are far past the point of education and must orient ourselves to become actionable.
Local and state governments are in a rush to approve data center projects with the promise that the companies will bring in revenue, jobs, and development, but in reality, the long-term effects of these decisions are concerning. For example, The Price Corridor in Chandler, Arizona, is chock full of data centers that are disruptive to neighbors. Noise pollution is one major issue, and AI has not resulted in the number of jobs promised. But in a positive light, the community knocked down proposals for more data centers in Dec. 2025.
So here are some suggestions on what to do if a data center is proposed in your local community. This resource is pulled directly from Green America, which I highly recommend you check out!
Banning Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs): There is often a lack of transparency among data center developers, leaving communities vulnerable. Too many negotiations happen behind closed doors. Local officials sometimes enter confidentiality agreements with developers, leaving the public in the dark about what is being promised, exchanged, or sacrificed. That creates an imbalance of power. Communities deserve to know what they are trading for new infrastructure.
We should be pushing for local ordinances that prevent public officials from signing secret deals with private developers. Public resources, land, water, and energy are not private assets. They belong to the people. From the company that establishes the data center to the companies that build and maintain it, everything should be disclosed. There should be no anonymity when it comes to corporations operating at this scale. Transparency is not optional; it is the baseline for environmental justice and democratic accountability.
Establishing Mandatory 24/7 Renewable Energy Requirements: Data centers will rely on excess coal and natural gas. It should be a requirement that any data center seeking to establish itself use 100% renewable, clean energy to feed the local grid. The facility itself should also run on renewables, and it must add new capacity to the energy grid, not with renewable energy certificates.
Renewable Energy Credits, or RECs, are basically proof that renewable electricity was generated somewhere. They can be bundled, meaning you buy the actual renewable electricity from your local utility along with the credit. Or they can be unbundled, meaning you just buy the certificate separately. When they are unbundled, that renewable energy might have been produced far away from where you actually use power. It gives companies flexibility, especially if they do not have access to local solar or wind. Some companies purchase large amounts of unbundled RECs to say they are powered by 100 percent renewable energy. What that really means is they bought enough certificates to match their electricity use. It does not necessarily mean their buildings are running directly on clean energy in real time. They may still be plugged into grids powered by fossil fuels. Unlike carbon credits, RECs do not directly reduce emissions. One REC represents one megawatt-hour of renewable electricity generated. Some are specific, like solar or wind, and some are more general. In theory, the money from RECs helps renewable energy companies grow. It can fund more solar panels, wind turbines, storage systems, and help move us away from fossil fuels. Some unbundled RECs are very cheap. That means the financial support going to renewable projects is often smaller than it sounds. And when renewable energy is built far away from the company buying the REC, it does not change the local grid they rely on. So RECs can be a tool in the transition. But they are not the same as running your operations directly on clean energy.
Implementing Strong Ratepayer Protections & Benefits: Energy bills have been skyrocketing for Americans. Most especially, residents report higher energy bills when data centers are fully established in a community. To ensure data centers pay their full energy costs rather than the community’s residents, we have to get them to fully disclose their load requirements. Load requirement is the energy needed for a data center to operate, including during peak load (when energy usage is high during daily activities, such as early mornings, lunch, or evenings).
Instead, data centers should pay for new direct transition lines, power generation capacity, and grid updates that power their facilities, and are treated as high-paying customers, which would then assign them a higher rate than regular residents.
Setting Strict Noise Limits & Ensuring Resident Health & Safety: Data centers emit noise pollution and that is not good for either humans or animals. Communities are vulnerable to having data centers built close to their homes; to prevent this, we need to establish limits on noise levels. Communities are beginning to set a standard of 45-55 dB(A) (decibels weighted for human hearing). These studies should measure all sound sources during their physical operations, rather than rely on hypothetical predictions of what they will be during the process of developing the data centers.
Requiring Conditional Use Permits with Binding Community Benefits: Data centers are being rapidly built with few restrictions and evading zoning requirements. We should prevent this by requiring them to create a special permitting system where approval is determined by community standards. The developers of data centers should be held to the same standard as other developers when they attempt to build something (i.e. malls, luxury homes, etc). Require data centers to have legally binding conditions that specify water usage, energy usage, ratepayer protections, environmental justice impacts, and the ability to revoke their permit if they are not adhering to standards. Tip: Ensure that “by-right” zoning for the data center is revoked.
Want to learn more steps to protect your community? Click the guide below.
Take Action!
Green America has created a guide that you can use to build awareness, whether that is handing out at town halls or creating zines to share with local organizers. Get it HERE.
This guide is a start for taking action on data centers. It’s also important that we take the time to educate the people around us about the potential harms of data centers, creating pathways for your neighbors to understand why these issues matter. That way they can relate the risks back to their livelihood, dignity, and safety, so they can live in an environment that does not hurt them or their families.
What are other ways we should look into preventing data centers from coming to our communities?
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