Bay Area Debates Data Centres Ahead of US Midterms: Seven Cities Pause Construction

Despite its reputation as a hub of artificial intelligence, at least seven cities in California's San Francisco Bay Area have passed moratoriums on data centre construction. Ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections, the issue has taken a large place in political debate in the United States.

Last month, protesters dressed as cardboard robots danced to a drumbeat and chanted outside Oakland City Hall against new data centres. Their main concern was that these centres, which process vast amounts of digital information, could strain the electricity grid.

The protesters argued the result would be not only environmental harm but also sky-high electricity bills for local households. Carlos Gutierrez, an activist with the environmental justice group Communities for a Better Environment, said power prices in Oakland have risen so much that some people are thinking of shutting off their power, while the city plans to provide power to a data centre instead.

Opposition to data centres is growing across the United States. According to the Pew Research Center, more than 3,000 data centres already operate in the country and more than 1,500 others are in development. But the backlash is most striking in the Bay Area, considered the heart of the AI boom.

Major AI companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta are based in the Bay Area, and the industry's growth has been credited with fuelling a local economic renaissance. Data centres house the advanced computer chips and servers needed to run AI services such as Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's ChatGPT.

But the centres require 24-hour power and large amounts of water to cool their processors. Even with cooling technology, they are notorious for emitting heat, raising land surface temperatures by as much as 9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Fahrenheit).

In the final two months before the vote, at least seven Bay Area cities, including San Francisco and Richmond, have passed temporary moratoriums on data centre construction. Oakland passed its moratorium on October 6, after days of protest.

Local politicians competing in the midterms have also used the topic to rally support among pockets of voters. One of the most closely watched Bay Area races is for the seat left vacant by longtime Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who is retiring at the end of the year after 39 years in the House of Representatives.

Two Democrats are competing in Tuesday's election to fill her position in Congress: San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan and state Senator Scott Wiener. Their positions on data centres differ: Wiener opposes any ban, telling Mission Local that a blanket data centre moratorium could undermine AI regulation.

Chan, meanwhile, has pledged to seek a nationwide moratorium on data centres, at least until responsible AI regulation is put in place. At a debate in October she said the moratorium should come first to allow a moment to regulate artificial intelligence. Chan played a leading role in passing San Francisco's moratorium in early October. A University of Southern California poll in mid-October showed Wiener leading Chan 47 percent to 41 percent.

Shum Preston, a San Francisco-based political analyst, said data centre opposition is an issue that unifies the US public like no other right now. An October CNBC poll found 63 percent of registered US voters oppose building data centres within 16 kilometres (10 miles) of their homes.

A major hurdle for the moratoriums is the lack of transparency around data centre construction. Supervisor Shamann Walton, who sponsored San Francisco's moratorium ordinance, has argued that the city's definition of data centres is outdated. Created in 2001, long before the AI boom, the planning code defines them as 'internet service exchanges', which may not accurately describe the technology today. In a September 14 statement he said 2001 rules cannot be used to regulate 2026 technology.

Roger Lin, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said 45 days is hardly enough time to document and study the impacts and then frame regulations. Cities such as San Francisco, Brisbane and Oakland paused construction for 45 days, with an option to extend. Lin added that nondisclosure agreements mean even local air quality boards may not know the impact of data centres on air quality.

AI industry supporters, meanwhile, tout data centre growth as evidence of a flourishing industry with positive effects for communities. Anthropic is preparing an initial public offering likely to raise billions of dollars. But critics warn the company's growth may not translate into an economic boom for the Bay Area overall; residents fear unequal growth that mainly benefits the wealthy. At a San Francisco City Hall hearing, one resident told the supervisors the city is becoming less for humans and more for robots and billionaires.