The EcoAction Committee of the Green Party of the United States supports a ban on new large data centers (20 MW).

The influx of data centers, driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI) and the crypto boom, presents one of the biggest environmental and social threats of our generation. In this age, water resources are already stretched thin and fossil fuel pollution is at a dangerous all-time high. The rapid expansion of data centers, with their enormous appetite for water and power, exacerbates the problem, taking ecological degradation to a new level. All this is compounded by the significant and concerning impacts AI is projected to have on society, including lost jobs, social instability and economic concentration.

The harms of data center growth include:

• High energy demand: Hyperscale facilities can use energy equivalent to hundreds of thousands of homes, straining local power grids and delaying the transition to renewable energy sources. Energy demand for data centers is projected to nearly triple in the coming decade. Fifty-six percent of the electricity used to power data centers is presently sourced from fossil fuels, directly contributing to climate change. In an attempt to offset this energy demand and reliance on fossil fuels, many data centers are driving the push to revitalize dangerous and expensive nuclear power. Electricity rates have increased 21.3 percent from 2021 to 2024 – drastically outpacing inflation – driven largely by utility upgrades tailored specifically for data centers, something that could continue to escalate over time.

• Unsustainable water consumption: A single, large, hyperscale data facility can consume as much water as a medium-sized town of 10,000 to 50,000 residents. Data centers may place heavy burdens on local municipal drinking water and nearby watersheds, especially in water-stressed regions, where two-thirds of data centers have been built since 2022.

• Water pollution: As water evaporates to cool massive computer servers, it concentrates and leaves behind pollutants in wastewater. Chemicals used for system maintenance, heavy metals from degrading pipes and excessive nutrients are then discharged to watersheds or to the surrounding land, leaching into the soil and contaminating groundwater and local wells.

• Thermal pollution: Cooling systems release heated water and air, in massive quantities, back into the environment. Releasing warm water into local bodies of water, drastically changes ambient temperature, which disrupts aquatic ecosystems. Large data centers have been known to be able to increase air temperatures up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit in the immediate environment, with some temperature increases being felt up to 6 miles away.

• Noise pollution: Residents of areas near data centers report loud humming noises from power generation at the facilities, around the clock, every day of the year.

• Economic downturn: Although developers promise jobs and tax revenue, the economic benefits for local communities are limited. Larger data centers require relatively few staff once operational, typically 20–50 employees. Tax incentives or breaks reduce the net revenue for public services. Most importantly, it must be considered that the purpose of AI data centers is to replace human workers. According to an AI executive, AI could negate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next five years and spike overall unemployment up to 20 percent. In addition, service jobs such as retail cashiers and customer service representatives are all projected to be replaced or greatly reduced.

While AI and data centers provide unimaginable wealth to Big Tech billionaires, they’re pushing all the risks, downsides, and damages of this technology onto us all. 

The Green Party supports a ban rather than a moratorium. Trying to regulate hyperscale data centers will not work in the existing political climate. Time after time, Democratic and Republican Party leaders eager for revenue and campaign contributions have been willing to let destructive and extractive industries write regulations as long as the state can take a cut of their profits. A moratorium starts with the assumption that we want this industry here and that we just need more time to figure out how to regulate its practices. We believe this is the wrong assumption. Across the country, the data center lobby has demonstrated a disregard for everything but its bottom line. Most politicians in power today have demonstrated that they cannot be relied on to effectively regulate most industries, especially this one. 

A ban starts from the position that we cannot trust the industry or the politicians promising to regulate it. If at some point their purpose and ecological footprint can be aligned with the common good, we would be open to considering regulations.