This year marks the 30th anniversary of the settlement between PG&E and the people of Hinkley, California, over the utility company’s groundwater contamination. The case was famously facilitated by legal clerk Erin Brockovich, and went on to become the largest direct-action lawsuit with a $333 million payout. (It also went on to secure Julia Roberts a Best Actress Oscar for the 2000 film, Erin Brockovich.) In the years since, the real Erin Brockovich has continued to be a staunch environmental advocate, through more litigation and other work. And what she’s concerned about today are all the AI data centers popping up like weeds across the country. By Erin’s estimations, there are two main problems with these data centers: 1) the undoubted environmental drain and waste caused in order to run them, and 2) the sneaky way that companies are setting up these centers, with veiled or even no communication to the local communities they’re infiltrating. So in response, Erin has done something pretty darn cool: she’s created a website that is building an interactive map of all the AI data centers rumored, being built, or already up and running in the US.
“The single most common concern—more than noise, more than water usage, more than rising utility bills—is the one word that keeps appearing in submission after submission: transparency,” she wrote.
Her website, brockovichdatacenter.com, is compiling complaints from across the U.S. to create an interactive map of data center projects that have been proposed, are under construction, or are operational. While the map isn’t exhaustive, she has received nearly 4,000 reports from people about data center developments in their communities in nearly all 50 states.
Brockovich pointed to several examples of how companies pushing to build data centers have kept nearby residents in the dark. In Holly Ridge, La., for example, local resident Diane Cobb told New Orleans Public Radio that she and other residents weren’t notified ahead of time about Meta’s planned $27 billion Hyperion data center that is set to take up 4,000 acres nearby.
“Nobody told us anything,” she told the outlet. “They supposedly had a big meeting. The whole community was supposed to come. Nobody knew anything about it. Ever.”
Meta did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
…Yet data center opposition is growing nationwide over concerns about how local resources will be affected. In 2023, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated that data centers in the U.S. used 176 terawatt-hours of energy, representing 4.4% of the country’s annual energy consumption. That is an increase from the 76 terawatt-hours they used in 2018, equal to about 1.9% of the country’s annual energy consumption.
Residents near data centers are increasingly feeling the financial strain of data centers’ power use. A Carnegie Mellon University study estimates that data centers could raise average U.S. electricity bills by 8% by 2030, with even bigger hikes in hot spots like northern Virginia. Water consumption is another growing concern. A single hyperscale data center can use millions of gallons of water daily for cooling, putting pressure on local water supplies.
Brockovich noted that companies seeking to build data centers need to make sure that local residents are informed ahead of time, not after the fact.
This lack of transparency has already played out in some states. In Box Elder County, Utah, a rural county of fewer than 60,000 residents, a public meeting for a $100 billion data center project backed by Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary drew a packed room of citizens seeking more information. Still, one commissioner told the audience to “grow up,” and the public officials then went into a separate room to unanimously approve the project.
“Transparency means notifying residents before decisions are made, not after. It means public hearings with real, complete information about energy consumption, water use, noise levels, and effects on local infrastructure,” wrote Brockovich on Substack. “It means elected officials who answer to their constituents first, not to the corporations seeking tax breaks and zoning variances.”
A color-coded map? Be still my beating heart! This is such a great resource, thank you Erin! I rail against AI on moral, artistic, and existential grounds all the time, but objective, concrete evidence of how these data centers affect the environment is perhaps the most persuasive argument we have. Because in this case, the environmental cost translates directly to an economic cost. (I’m not so delusional to think this country would care for environmental reasons alone.) Imagine if, like cigarette packs have cancer warning labels, using AI programs first came with a pop up disclaimer, like “Your energy bill is going up 8% by using our software!!” Ya think that might make a difference? I mean, if the price of eggs can sway an election…
In addition to the interactive, ever-evolving map, Brockovich’s website has a lot of other useful pages, like key concerns about the centers, statistics of what’s happening where, and latest news bulletins. And of course, if there’s something going up in your neighborhood, report it!
I love that she continues to fight when she obviously can live nicely the rest of her life. Data Center transparency should be everyone’s cause right now. But the problem with the egg analogy is that was always an excuse. This administration has driven gas prices to all time highs, especially in places like rural CA, where the current election results are red-miraging because voters don’t actually understand their own best interests. They really don’t understand the politics of water and never have.
I saw this and went good for her. It’s insane the US is becoming the home of data centers.
Here is the thing…AI Data centers CAN be built that are environmentally safer…using solar & wind turbines which bypass standard energy grids…using recycled water that NEVER evaporates for cooling…HOWEVA…these options cost more on the front end…so now you see why ALL the Tech bros got behind the Republican POTUS candidate because Republican Administrations in my lifetime have NEVA cared about the environment or societal health over a quick buck💔🇺🇸💔
I love how AI-defenders are like “well it can run on hydropower and other forms of clean, renewable energy!!”
So the tech oligarchs get to access clean, renewable and CHEAP energy for their server farms but the rest of us are forced to depend on shitty, costly, environmentally-damaging fucking fossil fuels. Wow. Thanks so much. Like, yes let’s make it super easy and cheap for Silicon Valley billionaires even as the rest of us are having wind and solar farm projects cancelled left and right by the orange tyrant.
Also, I WANT Erin’s leather jacket so badly.
@Kitten…Thank you…I FORGOT to add that it is a SIN & A SHAME that 💔🇺🇸💔 is STILL relying on tired ass energy delivery in 2026…I remember how PROUD I was a child when POTUS Jimmy Carter installed solar panels at the Whitehouse & he started pushing NEW energy resources…that’s ALSO when I started becoming ASHAMED of my political party…because what those old Dems 🤬 like Ted Kennedy did to UNDERMINE POTUS Carter as he cut our dependency on foreign oil & TRIED to usher in a NEW era of energy…was UNFORGIVABLE!
Carter was SO forward-thinking when it came to the climate. He doubled the size of the national park system and signed 15 major pieces of environmental legislation, including the first funding of green energy, the first toxic waste cleanup, and the first fuel-economy standards. He was also an incredibly good man.
…and now we have the opposite of him in every way, shape and form. Ugh.
I’m so glad she’s on this.
Ove only just found out that where I live, which is borderline desert, tech bros are planning on investing multi billions in data centres . Its not been discussed in the public domain at all. The environmental impact of ai goes unmentioned. All these people using ai as their fun bff who tells them they’re the bestest, smartest evvah. Yeah, they are pretty dead to me. Once you need ai to tell you how cool you are and describe your perfect day, and then gloat more over how cool you are -its sad. Its being designed to addict people to this crap.
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Well, I hate to say it – but the irony of objecting to data centers via an online platform is strong. The AI, the digitizing of everything, the ubiquitous cellphone usage – none of that happens without the data centers. Everyone commenting on this post is adding to the demand as we speak. This is turning into a not-in-my-neighborhood argument: I want my phone, streaming, GPS, and every other thing – but don’t put that data center near me. Don’t know what the solution is, but to demonize the companies who provide it while they are trying to meet the ever growing demands of the people objecting to it at the same time… doesn’t seem productive. It’s certainly a major issue not just for the US but the majority of the world – but your bills aren’t going up because there’s a data center. It’s because you’re using the juice.
Really disingenuous argument.
A CPU-centric unit has vastly different implications for the environment than the tens of thousands of GPUs needed to power an AI. AI requires a PHENOMENAL level of power–we’re talking the difference of 5-10KW for a traditional data center versus the 40KW-60KW required to power an AI data center. AI data centers also require liquid or immersion cooling which requires massive amounts of water versus just a regular, old air conditioner. And that’s to say nothing about the compute density that’s needed to power LLMs that talk to each other all day versus the user-to-server scenario that exists with traditional data centers. To state the obvious: creating massive, localized concentrations of heat, water use and electricity demand is bad.
Your argument is like saying because you drive a car and cars pollute the environment too, that you can’t be angry about people flying their private jets or driving their fancy yachts everywhere. Nonsense.
I’d prefer — by far — analog options. Unfortunately, they are less and less readily available. Verizon quickly ripped out the copper wires that supported my house phone — without asking. Three department stores, one bookstore, and multiple smaller businesses that attracted me to my very walkable neighborhood are now gone, thanks in part to the business plans of the current owner of my closest grocery store. Accessing health care or concert tickets or making travel arrangements or applying for everything from jobs to retirement benefits is difficult, if not impossible, without using the internet. I’d love to be a functioning Luddite — and enjoy options for pleasant face-to-face interactions — but the options, often, are just not there.
In my case, it’s less “irony” than recognition that the corporate overlords have irrevocably altered my life options— and that there is precious little that I can do about it. @KellySays, I’d be happy to write this —and more — in pen and ink on actual paper, if you’re comfortable providing your contact information.
All of these evil people are taking advantage of the fact that this lawless, grab what you can for you group is in the white house right now so they are trying to get all of these things built as quickly as possible.
It’s always the women. Go Erin!