Washington, D.C. – In a letter sent to Congress today, more than 160 environmental, health, consumer and religious groups from across the country called for a ban on all AI data center development on federal lands, as well as for the rejection of the so-called “permitting reform” bill which may soon be considered in the U.S. Senate. The letter was facilitated by the advocacy organization Food & Water Watch and signed by groups including Center for Biological Diversity, Green Latinos, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Our Revolution, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Science and Environmental Health Network and Third Act.

The letter specifically calls for passage of H.R. 9939, the No AI Data Centers on Federal Lands Act, and rejection of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA), which is cynically billed by its supporters as a long-sought solution to national permitting reform.

The letter states, in part: Public lands belong to all of us and should not become a default location for Big Tech data centers facing local opposition due to significant harms to public health and natural resources. Data centers can have impacts beyond the lands they occupy, driving significant energy demand and need for grid infrastructure, which can increase cost for the public, as well as create new sources of air and water pollution, which can adversely impact public health and the climate crisis… This push to expand data centers comes as lawmakers in Washington DC are considering a backroom deal that will drive forward a massive buildout of AI data centers and the fossil fuel infrastructure to power them. 

“Tuesday’s elections send a clear message that Americans want their representatives to protect their health and environment, not sell them out to Big Tech and Big Oil,” said Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, sponsor of H.R. 9939. “Nearly every data center moratorium on the ballot this week passed as our communities reject this assault on our quality of life. I am grateful to this wonderful coalition for their support of my No AI Data Centers on Federal Lands Act and for their vital advocacy opposing the Senate’s terrible permitting deal, which should obviously go no further with massive Democratic majorities set to take power in 2027.”

“Public lands belong to all of us, yet the so-called permitting reform bill would open them to massive AI data centers, pipelines and dirty fracked gas power plants to provide power – in blatant disregard for the overwhelming public backlash to Big Tech that helped drive voters to the polls,” said Jim Walsh, policy director at Food & Water Watch. “People across the country are rightfully chasing data centers out of their communities and the industry is eyeing public lands as a way around this growing opposition. Nothing could be more cynical.”

“Public lands belong to all of us. Latino communities already carry the cost of fossil fuel expansion: More than 1.8 million Latinos live within half a mile of oil and gas facilities, and one in three Latinos in this country lives in the drought-stricken Colorado River Basin. Now more than 24,000 acres of public land are on the table for data centers, along with hundreds of miles of new gas pipelines to power them. We urge Congress to pass H.R. 9939, and remember that public lands are a public trust, not a giveaway to the richest companies on earth,” said Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, PhD., policy advisor at GreenLatinos.