Salem – Today, hundreds of Oregonians from across the state, including Governor Kotek, gathered at the State Capitol for a rally and lobby day to call on the state legislature to pass a statewide moratorium on new and expanding large-scale data centers. 

At the rally, which was facilitated by Washington county farmer Jacob Roloff, attendees heard from powerful speakers including Morrow County rancher Jim Doherty, Emily Waldron of the Data Center Defiance Coalition, Brenna Yellowthunder with Indigenous Environmental Network, and Dr. Tammy Carpenter. Governor Kotek also spoke and expressed support for a state-wide moratorium on data centers. 

The rally also included the Raging Grannies who led the crowd in songs and the Sacred Organizing Coalition who led a moment of silence. 

“Today made one thing abundantly clear: Oregonians don’t want AI data centers sucking up our water, raising our bills and putting our communities at risk,” said Food & Water Watch Oregon Organizer Aimee Stone. “Our elected officials must take up these calls and pass a statewide moratorium on data centers so we can determine the impacts of these facilities on our water and our communities.”

Data centers have been proposed across the country due to the explosion of generative AI. These facilities cause a host of harms due to their enormous and unsustainable consumption of power and water resources, already resulting in skyrocketing utility bills for families and small businesses. 

Oregon is already experiencing dangerous drought and wildfires. Further, data centers have already supercharged the ongoing water contamination in Morrow County, which has been facing a nitrate pollution crisis due to overuse of chemical fertilizers by corporate-scale agriculture and dumping of industrial wastewater, which leach contaminants into the region’s groundwater. 

“We need to hit the emergency brake on runaway data center expansion in Oregon,” said Kaleb Lay, director of policy & research with Oregon Rural Action. “The data center boom in northeast Oregon is built on secrecy, extraction, and exploitation, and data centers aren’t waiting around for us to solve the problems they’re causing. We need a moratorium now.”

“Data center proliferation along the Columbia River is escalating electricity and water use, threatening salmon recovery, and undermining Oregon’s clean energy goals,” said Kelly Campbell, Policy Director with Columbia Riverkeeper. “A statewide moratorium is a practical step that would allow Oregon to develop strong regulations to ensure that data centers are not harming our water, climate, and communities. It’s time to stop letting Big Tech call the shots.”

“Oregonians need a statewide data center moratorium now,” said Emily Waldron, Data Center Defiance Coalition. “Throughout Oregon, we in rural communities haven’t been able to update our codes to deal with the influx of data center development. We need time to address this. Only the state can give us enough time.”