Data centers have become a high-level battlefield. Amid the growing demand for AI infrastructure, citizens affected by water shortages, rising electricity bills and environmental hazards have flocked to developers. Public backlash, including among local and international officials, has led to project delays and, in some cases, cancellations.
Now, an interactive online hub launched by environmental activist Erin Brockovich can give ordinary people a greater voice in the data center debate. Brockovich is best known for his fight with Pacific Gas & Electric over water pollution in Hinkley, California, through the 2000 Hollywood film about his fight with Julia Roberts.
At the center of the Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting website is an interactive map, filled with data sources for AI data centers, including those that already exist, as well as those that are proposed or currently under construction: 3,674 reported locations in total. Anyone can report a data center issue using an online form. Brockovich manually checks all posted reports, removing duplicates and excluding posts without ZIP codes from the map.
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The resource-rich, interactive map on the Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting website currently includes 3,674 publicly reported data center locations nationwide. That includes data centers built, those under construction and proposed projects.
“Erin is really interested in the map being self-reported so that everyone who submits their story can be seen and heard,” said Suzanne Boothby, an author who worked with Brockovich on his latest book and is the editor-in-chief of his Substack, The Brockovich Report.
According to Pew Research, there are at least 3,000 active data centers in the US, and as many as 1,500 more in the works. An FAQ on the site said the map is not intended to include all data centers in the country but rather focuses on areas where community members have expressed concerns.
Boothby told CNET via email that one of the hardest parts for anyone “facing environmental threats in their own backyard is feeling like no one is listening.”
Data centers have a problem with transparency
According to a May 27 post titled If Data Centers Are So Big, Why Are They Built in Secret?, Brockovich asked people in late April to post their concerns and information about data centers in their areas. He received a “flood” of responses, and the next month, the website map was filled with 2,716 pins from 3,862 reports.
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich wrote about water pollution in her book Superman’s Not Coming. Now he’s running data centers.
One theme kept coming up.
“One of the most common concerns — above noise, above water use, above rising utility costs — is one word that keeps coming up in submission after submission: transparency,” Brockovich wrote.
Secrecy about data center projects, he said, leaves residents with little say in developments that could have a major impact on where they live and work, including noise, water and electricity consumption and potential health effects. The post attracted more than 200 comments from readers, with one saying: “Thank you for taking on the powerful!!!!” Another comment noted that AI is consuming resources and contributing to job losses and economic disruption, saying, “Doesn’t sound like a big ‘deal’ to me.”
The rapid expansion of data centers across the country to meet the needs of AI computing has become the focus of opposition to Big Tech, and other giants such as SpaceX discusses plans to build itself in space.
On June 1, Oracle and OpenAI broke ground on a $16 billion AI data center in Saline Township, Michigan, which drew public protests. The pushback on the new data center proposals has led to a political debate over whether states can limit them.
About a dozen states are considering banning the construction of data centers. In Maine, lawmakers passed the first statewide ban on facilities generating more than 20 megawatts of electricity, which was later blocked by Governor Janet Mills.
A recent Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans oppose data centers.
Responding to a national issue
Brockovich’s hub features news and videos on specific sites and projects, including several photos of data centers under construction. One photo shows cleared farmland in Bowling Green, Ohio, making way for a complex structure. The site also covers key concerns about AI data centers and how communities are responding, with a list of places where a moratorium has been passed or where voters have taken action.
Boothby said this information gives people a place to be heard, especially those who are frustrated with the work of government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency or the Department of Environment.
“This map gives them a voice and I hope it opens up a bigger conversation so we can all see that this issue isn’t happening in one city here or there. It’s a national issue,” Boothby said.
