As Towns and Cities Fight Off Data Centers, Calls Grow for a National Moratorium

"Billionaire tech moguls talk as if the artificial intelligence revolution is inevitable, and it's up to the rest of us to adapt. Earlier this year in a blog post, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman boasted that society is now "past the event horizon; the takeoff has started" toward building computer "superintelligence." However, the industry is not just facing blowback from skeptics of the technology itself."

"A growing grassroots movement is fighting back against another concrete and immediate AI threat - the rapid expansion in local communities of massive "hyperscale" data centers, along with the fossil fuel plants to power them. In localities across the countries, neighbors worked across partisan lines to engage in David versus Goliath battles with Big Tech. As those fights over data center buildout are set to explode in 2026, some groups are calling for a larger moratorium to build on local fights."

""This movement isn't about ideology so much as communities recognizing that a small group of wealthy and powerful tech companies are exploiting essential resources and infrastructure, while pushing risks and costs onto the public," said Jim Walsh, policy director at the environmental health group Food & Water Watch, in an email. On December 8, Food & Water Watch joined more than 230 state and local environmental and community groups to send a letter to Congress"

Massive hyperscale data-center proposals have sparked local protests, including opposition to Amazon Web Services' Project Blue. Billionaire tech leaders frame AI progress as inevitable, with claims that society has crossed an "event horizon" toward superintelligence. Grassroots coalitions are mobilizing against rapid local expansions of data centers and associated fossil-fuel power plants. Neighbors across partisan lines engage in David-versus-Goliath fights with Big Tech, and activists are calling for broader moratoriums beyond local bans. Food & Water Watch and over 230 state and local groups petitioned Congress for a national moratorium, calling the buildout an acute environmental and social threat. The movement emphasizes growing energy demand, pollution, and water strain.

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