Alarming Plan from White House Would Ramrod AI Data Center Construction

December 16, 2024

Alarming Plan from White House Would Ramrod AI Data Center Construction

Groups call on White House to protect utility consumers, the climate, and local communities

WASHINGTON - The extraordinary action reportedly being considered by the Biden Administration to use the Defense Production Act to fast-track an AI data center buildout threatens to harm the reliability of the nation's power grid, foist higher utility prices for American households, unleash increased fossil fuel use and exacerbate quality of life concerns for local communities, according to a letter sent to the White House today.

The letter, sent by a coalition of environmental, consumer advocacy, and technology advocacy groups expresses "deep alarm" that the White House may use the Defense Production Act to ramrod AI data center construction past local ordinances and environmental safeguards.

"This massive spike in energy demand is being driven by some of the wealthiest corporations in the world, including several that this Administration has investigated or pursued for anti-competitive business practices," the groups write in the letter. "An enormous energy giveaway to these corporations at the expense of consumers, a habitable climate, and local communities would be unconscionable and inexcusable-a sharp deviation from this Administration's policies that could not only diminish, but deeply undermine, its historically significant climate achievements."

Among the demands, the signatories, which include Public Citizen, Earthjustice, League of Conservation Voters, and Center for Biological Diversity, the groups call on the administration to require that all new electricity production be renewable, require big tech firms to cover all costs for the new power, and ensure worker protections at any of the new data and power generation facilities.

"We implore you not to transform this Administration's legacy into one of pioneering energy infrastructure that privileges a few massive corporations' efforts to secure public subsidies for private gain while sticking ordinary Americans with higher energy bills and a more damaged world," the groups wrote in the letter.

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