{"id":192961,"date":"2025-12-09T06:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/more-than-200-environmental-groups-demand-halt-to-new-us-datacenters-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T06:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:52:11","slug":"more-than-200-environmental-groups-demand-halt-to-new-us-datacenters-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/more-than-200-environmental-groups-demand-halt-to-new-us-datacenters-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 200 environmental groups demand halt to new US datacenters – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: Congress urged to act against energy-hungry facilities blamed for increasing bills and worsening climate crisis
A coalition of more than 230 environmental groups has demanded a national moratorium on new datacenters in the US, the latest salvo in a growing backlash to a booming artificial intelligence industry that has been blamed for escalating electricity bills and worsening the climate crisis.
The green groups, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch and dozens of local organizations, have urged members of Congress to halt the proliferation of energy-hungry datacenters, accusing them of causing planet-heating emissions, sucking up vast amounts of water and exacerbating electricity bill increases that have hit Americans this year<\/a>.
\u201cThe rapid, largely unregulated rise of datacenters to fuel the AI and crypto frenzy is disrupting communities across the country and threatening Americans\u2019 economic, environmental, climate and water security,\u201d the letter states<\/a>, adding that approval of new data centers should be paused until new regulations are put in place.
The push comes amid a growing revolt against moves by companies such as Meta, Google and Open AI to plow hundreds of billions of dollars into new datacenters, primarily to meet the huge computing demands of AI. At least 16 datacenter projects<\/a>, worth a combined $64bn, have been blocked or delayed due to local opposition to rising electricity costs. The facilities\u2019 need for huge amounts of water to cool down equipment has also proved controversial, particularly in drier areas where supplies are scarce<\/a>.
These seemingly parochial concerns have now multiplied to become a potent political force, helping propel Democrats to a series of emphatic recent electoral successes in governor elections in Virginia<\/a> and New Jersey<\/a> as well as a stunning upset win<\/a> in a special public service commission poll in Georgia, with candidates campaigning<\/a> on lowering power bill costs and curbing datacenters<\/a>.
This threatens to be a major headache for Donald Trump, who has aggressively pushed the growth of AI<\/a> but also called himself the \u201caffordability president\u201d and vowed to cut energy costs in half in his first year.
However, household electricity prices have increased by 13%<\/a> so far under Trump and the president recently lashed out in the wake of the election losses, calling affordability a \u201cfake narrative\u201d and a \u201ccon job\u201d created by Democrats. \u201cThey just say the word,\u201d Trump said last week. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean anything to anybody. They just say it \u2013 affordability.\u201d
Yet about 80 million Americans are currently struggling<\/a> to pay their bills for electricity and gas<\/a>, with many voters regardless of political party blaming datacenters for this, according to Charles Hua, founder and executive director of PowerLines, a non-partisan organization that aims to reduce power bills.
\u201cWe saw rising utility bills become a core concern in the New Jersey, Georgia and Virginia elections, which shows us there is a new politics in America \u2013 we are entering a new era that is all about electricity prices,\u201d Hua said.
\u201cNobody in America wants to pay more for electricity and we saw in Georgia a meaningful chunk of conservative voters vote against the Republican incumbents, which was staggering.\u201d
Hua said the causes of the electricity cost rises were nuanced, with ageing transmission lines and damage caused by extreme weather also adding to utilities\u2019 costs on top of the surging demand for power.
But it is the growth of datacenters to service AI \u2013 with electricity consumption set to nearly triple<\/a> over the next decade, equivalent to powering 190m new homes \u2013 that is the focus of ire<\/a> for voters as well as an unlikely sweep of politicians ranging from Bernie Sanders<\/a> on the left to Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a> on the far right.
More broadly, almost half of Americans say<\/a> the cost of living in the US, including power, food and other essentials, is the worst they can ever remember it being.
This focus on affordability has provided a new line of attack<\/a> for an environmental movement that has struggled to counter Trump\u2019s onslaught<\/a> upon rules that reduce air and water pollution. The president has called the climate crisis a \u201choax\u201d and clean energy a \u201cscam\u201d and has slashed support for<\/a> and even blocked<\/a> new wind and solar projects, even though renewables are often the cheapest<\/a> and fastest options for new power generation.
At the current rate of growth, datacenters could add up to<\/a> 44m tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2030, equivalent to putting an extra 10m cars on to the road and exacerbating a climate crisis that is already spurring extreme weather<\/a> disasters<\/a> and ripping apart the fabric of the American insurance market<\/a>.
But it is the impact upon power bills, rather than the climate crisis, that is causing anguish for most voters, acknowledged Emily Wurth, managing director of organizing at Food & Water Watch, the group behind the letter to lawmakers.
\u201cI\u2019ve been amazed by the groundswell of grassroots, bipartisan opposition to this, in all types of communities across the US,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone is affected by this, the opposition has been across the political spectrum. A lot of people don\u2019t see the benefits coming from AI and feel they will be paying for it with their energy bills and water.
\u201cIt\u2019s an important talking point,\u201d Wurth said of the affordability concerns. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen outrageous utility price rises across the country and we are going to lean into this. Prices are going up across the board and this is something Americans really do care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: Congress urged to act against energy-hungry facilities blamed for increasing bills and worsening climate crisisA coalition of more than 230 environmental groups has demanded a national moratorium on new datacenters in the US, the latest salvo in a growing backlash to a booming artificial intelligence industry that has been blamed for escalating electricity bills […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":192962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}