California Is Leading a Growing Revolt Against Data Centers.

Something is happening in California communities from the suburbs of Los Angeles all the way down to the desert towns of the Imperial Valley, and the technology industry is starting to take notice. Residents across the state are pushing back against the rapid expansion of data centers, the enormous computing facilities that power artificial intelligence and cloud technology but bring serious and well-documented costs for the people who live around them. Complaints from affected communities are consistent and growing louder: the facilities operate around the clock at significant noise levels, draw enormous amounts of electricity away from surrounding homes, consume vast quantities of water, and drive up utility bills for neighbors who never asked to live next to a server farm. Across California and across the country, communities are increasingly saying that the economic promises of data centers are not worth what they cost the people living nearby.

The pushback has already produced one historic result, with Monterey Park becoming the first city in the United States to pass a permanent voter-backed ban on data centers, approved with a stunning 86 percent of the vote. Now residents in Imperial County are gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that would block data centers there too, even as some county officials push the project forward hoping it will address the region's 17.6 percent unemployment rate. Similar fights are playing out in Virginia, New Jersey, New Mexico, and communities across the country, all driven by the same core question of who gets to decide what gets built in their neighborhood. California communities are not waiting for the technology industry to find a better answer, and the organizing happening right now from Los Angeles County to the Imperial Valley suggests they are not planning to stop anytime soon.

Source:https://www.sfgate.com/california/article/imperial-county-data-centers-22310199.php