A coalition of more than 230 environmental groups has demanded a national moratorium on new data centers in the US, the latest salvo in a growing backlash to a booming artificial intelligence industry that has been blamed for escalating electricity bills and worsening the climate crisis.
The green groups, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch and dozens of local organizations, have urged members of Congress halt the proliferation of energy-hungry data centers, accusing them of causing planet-heating emissions, sucking up vast amounts of water and for exacerbating electricity bill increases that have hit Americans this year.
“The rapid, largely unregulated rise of data centers to fuel the AI and crypto frenzy is disrupting communities across the country and threatening Americans’ economic, environmental, climate and water security,” the letter states, adding that approval of new data centers should be paused until new regulations are put in place.
The push comes amid a growing revolt against moves by companies such as Meta, Google and Open AI to plow hundreds of billions of dollars into new data centers, primarily to meet the huge computing demands of AI. At least 16 data center projects, worth a combined $64bn, have been blocked or delayed due to local opposition to rising electricity costs. The facilities’ need for huge amounts of water to cool down equipment has also proved controversial, particularly in drier areas where supplies are scarce.
These seemingly parochial concerns have now multiplied to become a potent political force, helping propel Democrats to a series of emphatic recent electoral successes in governor elections in Virginia and New Jersey as well as a stunning upset win in a special public service commission poll in Georgia, with candidates campaigning on lowering power bill costs and curbing data centers.
This threatens to be a major headache for Donald Trump, who has aggressively pushed the growth of AI but also called himself the “affordability president” and vowed to cut energy costs in half in his first year.
However, household electricity prices have increased by 13% so far under Trump and the president recently lashed out in the wake of the election losses, calling affordability a “fake narrative” and a “con job” created by Democrats. “They just say the word,” Trump said last week. “It doesn’t mean anything to anybody. They just say it – affordability.”
Yet about 80 million Americans are currently struggling to pay their bills for electricity and gas, with many voters regardless of political party blaming data centers for this, according to Charles Hua, founder and executive director of PowerLines, a nonpartisan organization that aims to reduce power bills.
“We saw rising utility bills become a core concern in the New Jersey, Georgia and Virginia elections which shows us there is a new politics in America – we are entering a new era that is all about electricity…
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