Data Centers

Locals Fume As Meta AI Data Center Upends Entire Community

November 25, 2025 Brad Reed, Common Dreams. Educate! Data Centers, Louisiana, Meta, Public safety

The tiny town of Holly Ridge, Louisiana will soon be home to a massive $27 billion artificial intelligence data center being built by Facebook parent company Meta that, when finished, will be the largest in the world. However, residents of Holly Ridge do not feel honored that they are at the epicenter of Meta’s ambitious data center buildout, which they say has upended their entire community. As reported by New Orleans-based public radio station WWNO last week, the nonstop parade of trucks driving through Holly Ridge has led to a 600% increase in vehicle crashes over the last year, including three truck crashes that occurred just outside Holly Ridge Elementary School.

Data Centers Are Fueling The Lobbying Industry

November 8, 2025 Carolyn Neugarten, Scheer Post. Educate! Data Centers, Fossil Fuels, Lobbying, Regulations

From the farmlands of Northern Virginia to the industrial parks of New Jersey, massive new data centers are popping up across the country to power America’s artificial intelligence revolution. The energy needed to power these data centers is driving national energy usage to record levels, and these costs are falling on American households as soaring electricity consumption has translated into higher home utility bills, as well as health and environmental risks. As the demand for computing power increases, the technology, utility and finance industries have poured millions into supporting the policies and resource allotment they need to expand data centers.

The AI Race: How The Surge In Data Centers Harms Us

October 20, 2025 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Featured Campaign, Podcast - Clearing The FOG Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Tech, Data Centers, Energy, Finance and the Economy, Jobs, The South, Water

There are more than 5,400 data centers in the United States, which is almost half of the number of data centers worldwide. In the past four years, there has been a surge in data center construction, particularly in poor communities in the South. Clearing the FOG speaks with Jai Dulani of Media Justice, who authored a new report: The People Say No: Resisting Data Centers in the South, and Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson, about the harms that these centers are causing in local communities, particularly in their enormous consumption of water and energy, and the risk they pose to the US economy. Akuno also addresses the bigger picture of the deleterious impact of artificial intelligence on our lives.

Nuclear Goes Political

October 18, 2025 Robert Hunziker, Counter Punch. Educate! climate crisis, Data Centers, Hudson River, New York (NY), Nuclear Energy, Water

Climate change has a new partner in its quest to alter life as we know it: Nuclear, the power buzzword for the AI Holy Grail of human submission to digital electrons mimicking human brainpower. And AI can’t survive, can’t thrive without enormous amounts of electrical energy. Wall Street has the answer and politicians agree that nuclear is the big, beautiful answer to a whole new advanced level of human mental experience with electrons. The nuclear narrative is more positive than ever, “go for it,” but what if something goes wrong or is nuclear suddenly risks-free?

First Comprehensive, Regional Analysis Of Data Centers In The South

September 11, 2025 Media Justice. Educate! Big Tech, Data Centers, Environment, Environmental Justice, The South

Today, advocacy organization Media Justice releases The People Say No: Resisting Data Centers in the South, the first comprehensive, regional analysis of data centers across the South with original research and case studies from Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina. The new report reveals how tech corporations like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta, who have spent more than $100 billion on data center construction just this summer, are draining the region economically and environmentally. “While Big Tech wants the public to believe that the AI boom and rapid data center growth marks progress, our communities are being sold out in the process.

Georgia County Puts Off Key Data Center Vote

August 21, 2025 Edward Donnelly, DeSmog. Resist! Data Centers, Energy, Environment, Georgia

Commissioners in a Georgia county unanimously decided to delay a vote on contentious new rules governing massive data center projects, during a meeting that drew an unusual overflow crowd. Dozens of local residents packed the Commissioner Chambers in Newnan, 40 miles southwest of Atlanta, with more standing outside. Many wore red to show their unified opposition to “Project Sail,” a $17 billion “hyperscale” data center proposed in the Coweta County community of Sargent. “Folks, we’ve got a long night ahead of us,” said County Commission Chairman Bill McKenzie at the start of the August 19 evening meeting, according to a livestream.

Data Centers Consume Massive Amounts Of Water

August 20, 2025 Peyton McCauley and Melissa Scanlan, Scheer Post. Educate! Artificial Intelligence, Data Centers, Energy, Water

As demand for artificial intelligence technology boosts construction and proposed construction of data centers around the world, those computers require not just electricity and land, but also a significant amount of water. Data centers use water directly, with cooling water pumped through pipes in and around the computer equipment. They also use water indirectly, through the water required to produce the electricity to power the facility. The amount of water used to produce electricity increases dramatically when the source is fossil fuels compared with solar or wind. A 2024 report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated that in 2023, U.S. data centers consumed 17 billion gallons (64 billion liters) of water directly through cooling, and projects that by 2028, those figures could double – or even quadruple.

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