Adams County, OH — Last week, Monroe Township Trustees unanimously passed a 12-month moratorium for new proposals and development of data centers and small modular nuclear reactors. Monroe Township is the second locality in Adams County that has passed a moratorium on data centers in recent weeks. Sprigg Township voted for a 12-month moratorium in late February.

In response to the vote, Food & Water Watch Senior Researcher Ben Murray issued the following statement: 

“From New York to Georgia to Ohio, local governments around the nation are waking up to the AI-driven data center boom that stands to hurt communities while making Big Tech rich. Rural communities have been inundated with proposals for multi-billion dollar projects that would use many times more energy than the entire county while asking for tax breaks and not providing any real benefits. 

“As Monroe and Sprigg Townships hit the brakes on this development, Ohio must consider a statewide moratorium to protect all residents from the abundance of harms data centers bring.”

Earlier this week, Food & Water Watch — the first national group to call for a data center moratorium — released a comprehensive report that found that by 2028, AI-supporting data centers could consume:

• 720 billion gallons of water annually simply to cool the facilities — equal to more than 1 million Olympic-size swimming pools, or enough water to meet the indoor needs of 18.5 million American households;
• 580 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy annually — enough electricity to power over 55 million American households, or 12% of the nation’s overall energy demand.