Members of Congress in the US have been targeted by more than 230 organisations demanding a national moratorium on the approval and construction of new data centres. The organisations represent millions of people in all 50 states. The letter is explicit in the environmental and social threats posed by unbridled data centre construction.

It says:

“The rapid expansion of data centres across the US, driven by the generative artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto boom, presents one of the biggest environmental and social threats of our generation. This expansion is rapidly increasing demand for energy, driving more fossil fuel pollution, straining water resources and raising electricity prices across the country. All this compounds the significant and concerning impacts AI is having on society, including lost jobs, social instability and economic concentration.

“The harms of data centre growth are increasingly well-established, and they are massive. They include:

– Enormous electricity consumption: A tripling of data centres in the next five years would result in data centres consuming as much electricity as about 30m households.
– Unsustainable water consumption: A tripling of data centres would require as much water as is used by 18.5m households – simply for cooling the computer servers.
– Contribution to climate change: 56% of the electricity used to power data centres is sourced from fossil fuels.
– Skyrocketing electricity costs: electricity rates have increased 21.3% from 2021 to 2024 – drastically outpacing inflation – driven largely by the rapid build-out of data centres, something that could continue to escalate over time.
– Job losses: according to an AI executive, AI could negate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next five years and spike overall unemployment by up to 20%.

“The rapid, largely unregulated rise of data centres to fuel the AI and crypto frenzy is disrupting communities across the country and threatening Americans’ economic, environmental, climate and water security. We urge you to join our call for a national moratorium on new data centres until adequate regulations can be enacted to fully protect our communities, our families, our environment and our health from the runaway damage this industry is already inflicting.”