The rapid expansion of data centers across the United States, driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto booms, presents one of the biggest environmental, economic, and social challenges of our generation. Before the AI boom, fossil fuels were warming our climate and threatening our food, water, and public health. The AI-driven data center frenzy is like dousing a fire with gasoline. 

This frenzy is exponentially increasing demand for energy, expanding dirty energy and its pollution. It’s also straining our water resources and raising our electricity bills. It’s past time to slam the brakes. Last year, we became the first national organization to demand a nationwide halt to new data centers. We cannot allow these facilities to continue growing unrestrained.

Food & Water Watch is partnering with communities that are powering a grassroots movement to stop local data center proposals. We’re also leading the charge to halt data centers at the national level, working with groups across the country to pressure Congress to act.

Given how urgent this issue is and how it touches so many corners of our lives — our health, our environment, our wallets, our society and politics — we’re going all-in and launching our Stop Data Centers Now! campaign. With our winning combination of smart strategy and relentless people power, we’re ready to protect our communities from data centers at the local, state, and national levels.

Data Centers Threaten Our Health and Our Environment

As our electricity bills climb amidst a worsening climate crisis, it’s unconscionable that Big Tech is plowing ahead with energy-hungry and fossil-fueled data centers. We found that by 2028, data centers may require as much electricity as 28 million households every year. That’s enough to power twice as many households as are in the state of California. 

The exploding demand is driving families’ power bills to new heights and entrenching dirty energy. The Trump administration is extending the lives of dying coal plants for data centers. Meta recently announced jaw-dropping deals to buy nuclear power amid the AI boom. Elon Musk set up dozens of gas turbines to fuel his AI data center, spewing pollution into a predominantly Black neighborhood of Memphis, Tennessee. 

Data centers are also straining precious water supplies that we depend on for drinking. As of 2023, nearly 80% of the water consumed by Google’s U.S. AI data centers came from drinking water sources. Data centers demand a lot of water for cooling — and yet, companies are building them in already water-stressed areas.

These facilities are expanding in an absolutely unsustainable way for our climate, our communities, our health, and our environment, and they must be reined in.

Big Tech and Its Allies Are Charging Forward at Our Expense

Make no mistake: the data center boom is about making Big Tech companies richer while our communities suffer. Their allies in Congress and the White House are clearing the way for them to do it. Trump’s AI executive orders are pushing a policy of minimal regulation, while we’ve seen multiple bills introduced in Congress to shield the industry from oversight. 

This comes as no surprise, given how Big Tech has courted elected officials. On both sides of the aisle, governors have cleared the way for the data center boom. At the same time, grand promises of economic development have lured states into giving lucrative tax breaks to data centers. Such tax exemptions cost Virginia, the data center capital of the U.S., $673 million in lost revenue in 2022 alone. 

And while data centers may promise new jobs, they’re in fact a paltry source of employment, especially considering the investment needed to create these jobs. We found that in Virginia, a data center job created in the last five years took $54 million of investment. That’s 168 times more than the average job in the state.

Data centers are a drain on our communities. They bring pollution, devour community resources, raise electricity bills — and offer us little in return. 

Join Our Growing Movement to Stop Data Centers!

Despite Big Tech’s political power, people across the country from all walks of life are making their demands clear: they don’t want these facilities in their backyards. We need to stop all new data centers, nationwide, until we have protections for communities and the environment.

More than 230 organizations have joined us in this call. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joined us, too. Across the country, elected officials are hearing our demand that they side with us against Big Tech oligarchs. Proposals for local pauses are growing, and we expect states to start following. 

This is all because community members have taken to the streets, to town meetings, and to the press to oppose data centers. In Pennsylvania, we’ve worked with grassroots activists to stop data center proposals and use municipal zoning laws to curtail their growth. These victories are an amazing testament to the power of people coming together and making their voices heard. 

Now, our new campaign will expand our work fighting data centers at every level of government. 

• At the local level, we’re supporting local fights to stop data center projects and connecting activists to learn from these fights across the country.
• At the state level, we’re building coalitions with other groups to pass statewide legislation to curb data center growth.
• At the federal level, we’re blocking efforts to restrict state and local regulations, and we’re building support in Congress for a national policy to halt new data centers.

The movement against data centers is a movement for our communities and our climate against mega-corporations and their allies in power. This movement is growing, and we’re proud to be a part of it. Join us!