More than 200 environmental organizations are urging Congress to halt the development of all new data centers.
In a letter sent Dec. 8, the groups cite enormous energy and water consumption, and contributions to climate change. They don’t want any more data centers approved without better regulations in place.
“Once the boom is fully underway, once it really gets going, it'll be a lot harder to shape how and where these facilities operate,” said Jocelyn Wulf, a fellow at the Wyoming Outdoor Council, a nonprofit conservation advocacy group.
The nonprofit didn’t sign the recent letter, but it did recently release a white paper recommending legislation to get ahead of the data center boom in Wyoming.
“We do just need to get in front of the boom and not have to play catch up,” said Wulf, who wrote the paper.
She said Wyoming could follow Utah’s lead and make developers pay for burdening power grids, not ratepayers. Or like California, it could create an office to review all data center projects and provide opportunities for public comment.
Right now, in Wyoming, Wulf said developers are able to streamline the state review process and potentially stay out of the public eye by picking land in county-designated industrial parks.
“You can end up with these facilities consuming the same amount of resources that a small city does that doesn't go through the kinds of checks and balances you'd expect to see for that scale of impact,” Wulf said.
The white paper also details ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions, create tax incentives to conserve water and energy, and require public annual reporting, among other recommendations. Wulf hopes lawmakers will pass legislation in their upcoming legislative session or in the coming years.
This comes as many governors in the Mountain West welcome data center projects as a way to drive economic growth and after one community in Arizona shot down a data center proposal.
Meanwhile, 11 organizations based in the Mountain West signed onto the national letter demanding a moratorium on data center development. That includes the following:
Arizona
Don't Waste Arizona
Colorado
Black Parents United Foundation
CASE Citizens Alliance for a Sustainable Englewood
Climate Reality Project - Northern Colorado Chapter
Energy Smart Colorado
FoCo Trash Mob, a Beyond Plastics Affiliate
Roots to Resilience
Idaho
Snake River Alliance
Nevada
Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force
New Mexico
Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety
Los Alamos Study Group
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
