As Cities Try to Regulate Data Centers, More States Work to Block Their Efforts

States are considering legislation that prevents municipalities from regulating data centers and artificial intelligence. Legal advocates warn that preemption legislation reduces local efforts to address concerns such as noise pollution and opaque development contracting. Over the past two years, at least nine states have considered multiple bills aimed at curbing local control. Advocates say companies behind AI are pushing state legislatures to ensure no local governments regulate AI. They describe the bills in several states as copies of model legislation tied to the American Legislative Exchange Council. Once preemption becomes law, it is difficult to reverse. The United States is building data centers faster than any other country and has the most hyperscale facilities.

"An increasing number of states are pursuing legislation aimed at preventing local municipalities from regulating data centers and artificial intelligence (AI), legal advocates warn, all but ensuring their construction. This "preemption legislation" truncates efforts led by residents to counter the rapid expansion of facilities that have been widely criticized for everything from noise pollution to the secretive process by which many contracts for development are approved."

""The companies that are behind AI are going to state legislatures proactively and saying, 'We want to make sure that there are no governments that are regulating AI ... we want you to enact this,'" said Leslie Zellers, a lawyer with the Local Solutions Support Center. "It's a coordinated effort by special interests to try to stop any local regulation of AI.""

"Members of Local Solutions Support Center say that the bills introduced in New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia, which seek to codify a "right to compute," are facsimiles of the same model legislation written by the conservative lobbying group American Legislative Exchange Council. Going off that model allows the legislation to appear in many state houses seemingly all at once, and it's dangerous, Zellers said, because once preemption is made law, it's nearly impossible to undo."

"In the past two years, at least nine states have considered 12 different bills aimed at curbing local control of data centers and artificial intelligence, according to the Local Solutions Support Center, a national network of organizations that tracks the overuse of preemption. The U.S. is constructing data centers faster than anywhere else in the world and is home to the largest number of hyperscale data centers"

Read at Truthout