How Third Act Is Tackling Data Centers

The AI-driven data center boom, which is driving up electricity bills for consumers, draining our water supply, and causing immeasurable noise pollution, can be stopped if we work together—collectively and in solidarity.

For Third Actors, this is a critical issue: not only can we not afford a 20% (or more) jump in our electricity bills, but we know that data centers rely on fossil fuels, thus accelerating the climate crisis when we have no time to waste.

The fight against data centers is a fight not just for the present, but for the future—for the future of this planet and all the creatures who live on it.

Michael Richardson, TA Campaigns Director, explains how Third Act is taking action.

 

What is Third Act doing to address the expansion of AI-driven data centers?

Third Act is actively engaged in coalitions with Public Citizen, Food & Water Watch, the Athena Coalition, and other environmental and community groups to demand a halt in the rapid expansion of AI-driven data centers. 

These coalitions are calling for moratoria on new data center construction, arguing that their massive energy and water consumption will increase residential electricity rates, undermine climate goals, and exceed the limits of local resources.

 

Why are moratoria being called for?

The nationwide call for federal, state and local moratoria on new construction of hyper-scale data centers is to allow for the development and implementation of sound environmental and prudent economic policies.

Without these moratoria, the billionaire tech industry will continue to rush into agreements with local governments to acquire land, water and electricity. These agreements are loaded with ratepayer subsidies, access to precious water sources, and promises to supply energy that feeds into the fossil fuel industry’s narrative: that to keep this technology running we have to put a pause on dealing with climate change for now.

 

Why is the pace of data center deployment a problem?

These data centers are being deployed in a matter of months, a pace alarmingly faster than the years-long evolution of traditional utility and regulatory frameworks. The rapid expansion of AI data center infrastructure is overwhelming local regulatory frameworks, significantly stressing electricity grids, water supplies, and land-use planning.

 

What are the key environmental concerns around the data center expansion?

Grid Stability & Costs 

Massive energy demands from AI data centers—approximately 7% to 12% of total U.S. electricity by 2030—lead utilities to claim they must delay closing aging fossil fuel plants and invest in costly grid upgrades. These expensive infrastructure projects are disproportionately funded by rate hikes to residential consumers rather than billionaire tech companies.

Water Scarcity 

Hyperscale data centers consume millions of gallons of water daily for cooling and the discharge may contain chemical additives. Drought-prone regions risk long-term harm from depleted aquifers and lower water tables.

Economic Transparency

Local tax break non-disclosure agreements allow data centers to secure public subsidies while under-delivering on job creation and community value. These secret deals hide the identity of the tech company, the energy and water usage, and the total cost to taxpayers.

Environmental Justice and Self-Determination 

The playbook is the same as it ever was: these toxic facilities are often being built in Black and brown communities, the same communities that have already borne the brunt of many climate change-driven disasters.

From a letter co-signed by Third Act: 

For frontline and fenceline communities, families and neighborhoods across the country, this isn’t just about where our electricity comes from. It’s about whether we have a say in what happens in our own backyards – our land, our water, our air, our health and our utility bills. Yet, this push for new data centers repeats a pattern we’ve seen too often: powerful corporations and big institutions making decisions, while those most impacted are left out and their concerns ignored

Building more data centers, even when powered by “clean” renewables, without zoning regulations that require actual community approval, enforceable checks on water and energy use, strict environmental standards, and genuine accountability, risks repeating the exact same mistakes we saw with the fossil fuel industry: silencing local concerns, weakening environmental reviews, ignoring the health and human costs, and putting corporate profits over the well-being of our families and the planet we all share.

 

What can I do to help?

Third Act supports moratoria—federal, state and municipal—to afford us the necessary time to get it right before irreparable harm is done to the environment and the economy. 

Volunteer through your Third Act Working Group and its state-based coalition to demand a halt in the rapid expansion of AI-driven data centers.

 

Recommended Reading

Public Citizen: Reining in Big Tech: Policy Solutions to Address the Data Center Buildout

Food & Water Watch: The Urgent Case Against Data Centers