WASHINGTON, DC (By Democracy Now!, 25.May.2026, Words: 331) â Plans to build large-scale data centers in rural, Black and Indigenous communities across the US are being met with local resistance.
These new data centers are intended to help meet the needs computing-intensive artificial intelligence models, but the speed at which they are being developed is igniting accusations of environmental racism and corporate wrongdoing.
In Maine, the second-most rural state in the country (over 60% of Maine’s population lives in rural areas), governor Janet Mills recently vetoed what would have been the nation’s first statewide moratorium on large Al data centers.
A data center planned at the site of a shuttered mill in the town of Jay is now set to proceed. Opponents say they are concerned about a lack of regulatory oversight and accountability to policymakers.
“My colleagues [and] I asked for proof of the claims that the data center, once installed, would use little water and energy and have no environmental impact … We were not provided those details.” â Melanie Sachs as reported by The Maine Morning Star
In Memphis, Tennessee, a city with one of the largest Black populations in the country, Elon Musk’s company ĂAl installed methane gas turbines in the 99% Black neighborhood of Boxtown without any permits. The total number of ĂAl turbines was not even known to the public until the Southern Environmental Law Center conducted a flyover of ĂAl’s facility.
The turbines emit pollutants like formaldehyde, tied to increased rates of chronic disease.
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Dozens of new data centers are also being developed on or near Indigenous-owned tribal or reservation lands, according to the environmental justice organization Honor the Earth, which has been tracking new proposals and expansions of existing sites.
“We acknowledge that technocolonialism is the continuation of extractive industries continuing to exploit Indigenous peoples across the globe. We see this manifestation through hyperscale data centers aiding in the technological expansion of empire, including global militarism, surveillance and the entrenching of the police state.” â Stop Data Colonialism Manifesto
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