{"id":5958,"date":"2026-04-29T18:03:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T22:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weact.org\/?post_type=update&p=5958"},"modified":"2026-04-30T18:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:04:07","slug":"congress-urged-to-reject-fast-tracking-of-harmful-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"update","link":"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/congress-urged-to-reject-fast-tracking-of-harmful-data-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress Urged to Reject Fast-Tracking of Harmful Data Centers"},"template":"","class_list":["post-5958","update","type-update","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","update_type-press-release","focus_tax-clean-air","focus_tax-climate-justice","focus_tax-energy-justice","focus_tax-healthy-communities"],"acf":{"details":{"":null,"featured_image":5221,"update_type":[366],"focus_area":[5,7,6,9],"authors":false,"abstract":""},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_hero_links","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_hero_links":{"title":"","abstract":"","links":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"
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\r\n\r\nFor Immediate Release, April 29, 2026\r\n
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Contact:<\/td>\r\n\r\n

Camden Weber, Center for Biological Diversity, (202) 849-8401 x 104,\u00a0cweber@biologicaldiversity.org\r\nLaTricea Adams, Young, Gifted & Green,\u00a0president@younggiftedgreen.org\r\nKeShaun Pearson, Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP),\u00a0kpearson@memphiscap.org\r\nMar Zepeda Salazar, Climate Justice Alliance,\u00a0mar@climatejusticealliance.org\r\nAshley Sullivan, WE ACT for Environmental Justice,\u00a0ashley.sullivan@weact.org\r\nLindsay Tice, Friends of the Earth U.S.,\u00a0ltice@foe.org<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Congress Urged to Reject Fast-Tracking of Harmful Data Centers<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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WASHINGTON\u2014 Nearly 120 community, labor, climate and environmental justice organizations representing millions of people across the country today\u00a0urged<\/a>\u00a0Congress to reject efforts to fast-track artificial intelligence or data centers through permitting reform or other must-pass legislation.<\/p>\r\n

Despite growing nationwide\u00a0opposition<\/a>, data center\u00a0expansion<\/a>\u00a0is moving ahead without basic safeguards or meaningful community consent. The data center boom is driving up electricity\u00a0bills<\/a>, straining\u00a0water<\/a>\u00a0supplies, and worsening\u00a0pollution<\/a>\u00a0from diesel generators and\u00a0fossil-fuel<\/a>-powered grids, while deepening\u00a0environmental injustice<\/a>\u00a0by concentrating facilities in low-income communities and communities of color already overburdened by pollution and limited resources.<\/p>\r\n

The\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0sent to congressional leaders today is backed by environmental justice leaders on the frontlines, including Memphis-based Young, Gifted & Green and Memphis Community Against Pollution. Those groups are fighting an xAI data center and working to ensure their efforts inform communities facing similar developments, serving as both a warning and a model for action.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cOur democratic process was sidelined when our most powerful leaders both elected and unelected championed a data center while community voices were shut out,\u201d said LaTricea D. Adams, CEO and president, Young, Gifted & Green. \u201cWhat happens in Memphis can happen in cities and states across the country. We need the U.S. Congress to do its job now to preserve and protect our rights as constituents and fight for our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cPerpetuating the long-standing practice of environmental injustice costs our families their human right to clean air while burdening our bodies with illness that impact everything from breathing to birthings,\u201d said KeShaun Pearson, executive director of Memphis Community Against Coalition. \u201cCongress must put an end to the continual sacrificing of majority Black families and futures like ours. We deserve a healthy environment that doesn\u2019t harm our communities and our planet for corporate gain.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The letter warns that data center developers are replicating the fossil fuel industry\u2019s long-standing pattern of targeting low-income communities, Tribal communities and communities of color. Nearly\u00a0half<\/a>\u00a0of U.S. data centers are already located in these areas, deepening cumulative pollution burdens, raising utility costs and straining infrastructure in communities with the least resources to respond.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cCongress must not let Big Tech block oversight and hide data centers\u2019 real harms from the public, including their immense energy and water use, dangerous pollution and rising local costs,\u201d said Camden Weber, senior climate and energy policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. \u201cData center giants spend consumers\u2019 money to gut regulations,\u00a0buy up<\/a>\u00a0utilities and avoid accountability, enriching billionaires while shifting risks to everyone else. Members of Congress are supposed to represent their communities, not strip the people who elected them of the power to protect themselves from these massive operations moving into their neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\"We\u2019ve seen this playbook before: strip away safeguards, sideline public input, and call it progress. But there is nothing \u2018clean\u2019 or responsible about an industry that drives up our energy bills, drains our water, and concentrates pollution in our communities,\u201d said Mar Zepeda Salazar, legislative director at Climate Justice Alliance. \u201cIf lawmakers move forward with a deregulatory approach, what guarantees are there that anyone will be held accountable\u2014to the law, to public health, or to the people most impacted? Our communities should not be forced to subsidize corporate growth with their health, their land, and their futures. Real progress means durable and enforceable protections, community consent, and investment that doesn\u2019t come at the cost of environmental justice.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAll communities deserve to have a say in what is being built in their backyards, especially for environmental justice communities facing a legacy of dangerous facilities polluting their neighborhoods,\u201d said Yosef Robele, federal policy manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. \u201cThis is even more important now as harmful, undemocratic practices are being employed in the build-out of data center projects, such as using non-disclosure agreements that keep communities in the dark. These facilities often bypass necessary guardrails of both public input and impact analysis, threatening the health and safety of communities by polluting the air and water, while also guzzling critical water resources. This highlights the need for Congress to reject legislation that fast-tracks data center development, and to protect and strengthen bedrock laws like NEPA that protect communities\u2019 rights, resources, and health.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt is time for Congress to stand up to Big Tech and reject these dangerous permitting rollbacks,\u201d said Jim Walsh, policy director of Food & Water Watch. \u201cCommunities should not have to sacrifice their water so multibillion dollar companies can build data centers faster with less accountability, especially at a time when we are facing a water supply crisis across the United States. Rather than fast tracking these projects, Congress should listen to communities around the country that are rejecting the massive expansion of data centers and put the brakes on these projects so we can better understand the impacts on scarce water supplies and communities that depend on this essential resource.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cUsing permitting reform and other legislation to fast track the data center boom is a slap in the face to local communities who will be the ones to pay the price. No amount of giveaways to data center projects will stave off irreversible harm, including rising electricity costs and polluted environments,\u201d said Raena Garcia, senior energy campaigner from Friends of the Earth U.S. \u201cIf Congress is truly committed to protecting our people and the planet, they will halt altogether the attempts from both the Big Oil and Big Tech industries to scale up data centers without meaningful protections.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

# # #<\/p>\r\nWE ACT for Environmental Justice<\/strong>\u00a0is a Northern Manhattan-based, membership-driven organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and\/or low-income residents are meaningfully included in the development of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at\u00a0weact.org<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>, and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>. WE ACT\u2019s legislative priorities are detailed in our\u00a02026 Policy Agenda<\/a>.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","include_drop_cap":false}}]},"yoast_head":"\nCongress Urged to Reject Fast-Tracking of Harmful Data Centers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Congress Urged to Reject Fast-Tracking of Harmful Data Centers - press release from WE ACT and partners encouraging holding the line.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/congress-urged-to-reject-fast-tracking-of-harmful-data-centers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Congress Urged to Reject Fast-Tracking of Harmful Data Centers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Congress Urged to Reject Fast-Tracking of Harmful Data Centers - press release from WE ACT and partners encouraging holding the line.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/congress-urged-to-reject-fast-tracking-of-harmful-data-centers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WE ACT for Environmental Justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-30T22:04:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/weact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Press-Release.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/weact.org\/updates\/congress-urged-to-reject-fast-tracking-of-harmful-data-centers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/weact.org\/updates\/congress-urged-to-reject-fast-tracking-of-harmful-data-centers\/\",\"name\":\"Congress Urged to Reject Fast-Tracking of Harmful Data Centers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/weact.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/weact.org\/updates\/congress-urged-to-reject-fast-tracking-of-harmful-data-centers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/weact.org\/updates\/congress-urged-to-reject-fast-tracking-of-harmful-data-centers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/weact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Press-Release.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-29T22:03:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-30T22:04:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"Congress Urged to Reject Fast-Tracking of Harmful Data Centers - 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