Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
Two of the leading progressives in the US Congress, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, announced legislation on Wednesday that would impose a nationwide moratorium on the construction of new artificial intelligence data centers amid mounting concerns over their insatiable consumption of power and water resources, impacts on the climate, and other harms.
Sanders' office said in a press release announcing the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act that the construction pause would remain in effect 'until strong national safeguards are in place to protect workers, consumers, and communities, defend privacy and civil rights, and ensure these technologies do not harm our environment.'Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are set to formally introduce their legislation at a press conference on Wednesday at 4 pm ET.Food & Water Watch , which last year became the first national organization in the US to call for a total moratorium on the approval of new AI data centers, celebrated the first-of-its-kind bill and called on other members of Congress to 'move quickly to sponsor, champion, and pass' it. FWW's groundbreaking call for a national AI data center moratorium was later echoed by hundreds of advocacy organizations at the state and national levels.“We need a halt to the explosive growth of new AI data center construction now, because political and community leaders across the country have been caught completely off guard by this aggressive, profit-hungry industry,' Mitch Jones, FWW's managing director of policy and litigation, said in a statement Wednesday. 'It has yet to be determined if—not how—the industry can ever operate in a manner that sufficiently protects people and society from the profusion of inherent hazards and harms that data centers bring wherever they appear.'“Long before the recent spike in global oil prices, Americans throughout the country were dealing with skyrocketing electricity rates due to the egregious consumption and jolting grid impacts levied by Big Tech’s AI data centers,' Jones added. 'Meanwhile, these massive facilities are sucking up precious water resources, paving over farmland, driving climate change, and disrupting the fabric of communities. We mustn’t allow another unchecked Silicon Valley scheme to profit off our backs while sticking us with the bill.'In a detailed report released last week, titled The Urgent Case Against Data Centers, FWW pointed to some of the 'documented harms caused by AI and data centers,' including:Enormous energy footprints: A single hyperscale data center can consume as much energy as 2 million US households.A lifeline for fossil fuels: The thirst for fuel is being met by keeping old coal-fired power plants running and by building new natural gas ones.Skyrocketing electricity costs: Increased energy demand can raise residential rates, which soared 31% from 2020 to 2025 .Drained water resources: By 2028, AI data centers could use as much water as 18.5 million households, just for cooling their servers.An investment bubble: A handful of companies are investing in one another and increasingly turning to risky debt structures to hide the threat of the bubble.A litany of other harms: This includes massive amounts of electronic waste , unrelenting noise pollution, loss of farmland, political instability from deepfake videos, lost revenue from data center tax incentives, and child endangerment from AI chatbots.Those harms have fueled massive grassroots opposition to AI data centers, with communities organizing to prevent construction in their backyards. One report estimates that between May 2024 and March 2025, local opposition helped tank or delay $64 billion worth of data center projects across the US.That opposition has pushed local lawmakers to act. According to a tracker maintained by Good Jobs First, 'at least 63 local data-center moratorium actions have been introduced, considered, or adopted across dozens of towns and counties,' and 'some 54 have already passed.'At the state level, Good Jobs First counted 'at least 12 in-session states with filed data center moratorium bills this cycle,' and noted that some governors have taken or floated executive action to slow or pause AI data center build-outs.But the Trump administration is trying to move in the opposite direction. In a national policy framework document unveiled last week, the White House urged Congress to 'streamline federal permitting for AI infrastructure construction and operation' and called for a prohibition on state regulation of AI.Jim Walsh, FWW's policy director, slammed the White House framework as 'more of the same nonsense we’ve been hearing for months' and warned that 'more data centers mean more climate-killing fracked gas power plants poisoning our air and water, and more stress placed on local communities’ precious water resources.''The only prudent course of action when it comes to AI,' said Walsh, 'is to halt the explosive growth of new data center construction now, so that states and communities have the time needed to properly consider their own futures.'
Bernie-Sanders Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez Food-Water-Watch Data-Centers
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