Energy prices are rising. Demand for electricity is surging. Next year is expected to be the hottest on record as a severe El Niño weather pattern gathers steam. And there is no consensus about how the political world or the private sector should meet this moment.
Those were some of the themes that defined a series of expansive conversations we had with policymakers, business leaders and activists yesterday at the Climate Forward live event that we hosted at the Times Center in New York City. (You can watch videos from the sessions here.)
The data centers roiling the nation and shaking up the midterm elections emerged as the day’s main battleground.
‘It’s killing people’
During the first panel of the day, I spoke with the environmental activist Erin Brockovich, whose work was the basis of the 2000 movie bearing her name, and State Representative Justin J. Pearson of Tennessee, both of whom are working to oppose data center projects.
Pearson, a Democrat who is currently campaigning to represent Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District, drew attention to the health effects of air pollution from data centers, citing estimates that additional pollution from gas turbines and diesel generators could kill dozens of people each year.
For Pearson, the potential effects of data centers are quite real. “It’s killing people in communities now,” he said of air pollution. He also accused Elon Musk of illegally installing natural gas turbines near his community in Memphis.
(Watch the conversation with Brockovich and Pearson here.)
The sites near his district have drawn scrutiny since the N.A.A.C.P. sued Musk’s xAI in June, saying that the company has been operating natural-gas-burning turbines without the proper permits.
Brockovich recently started a data center mapping project to crowdsource new developments nationwide, and criticized the secrecy of deals with local governments.
“Nondisclosure agreements. Secrecies. Not being informed. And just all of a sudden, things were being rezoned,” she said, describing what she is hearing from local communities. “They didn’t have a vote. They didn’t have a say. And that has really set them off.”
A call for ‘rules of the road’
Later in the day I interviewed Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, a Democrat. Her state has the most data centers in the country. Loudoun County alone has more than 250, which have brought in huge tax revenues but also sparked an intense backlash from neighbors.
Spanberger told me that states should do more to regulate data centers and address their effects on air and noise pollution, energy prices and surrounding communities, and explained the rationale behind a set of policies she announced last week aimed at putting guardrails on the industry.
“While ultimately the decision needs to live with the locality, as they’re balancing what they’re choosing to approve or not approve, the state has a role in creating the real rules of the road,” she said.
(Watch the conversation with Gov. Spanberger here.)
Spanberger called for limiting the amount of electricity that data centers can generate from natural gas and incentivizing developers to supply their own clean energy. But she stopped short of endorsing the one-year moratorium on data center construction issued by Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, who is also a Democrat.
A.I.’s ‘huge potential’
We also heard from the data center industry and its allies in the White House.
Josh Parker, head of sustainability at the chipmaker Nvidia, told my colleague Cecilia Kang that artificial intelligence has “huge potential to drive net emissions reductions.”
The data center boom has pushed U.S. electricity demand upward for the first time in decades, fueling the construction of natural gas turbines and diesel generators that will increase greenhouse gas emissions.
But Parker said artificial-intelligence-driven energy savings in manufacturing, buildings and transportation could help cancel out the technology’s carbon footprint, as can “moonshots,” like nuclear fusion.
“Even if A.I. only accelerates commercializable nuclear fusion or even advanced fission by a year, the terms of carbon savings and energy abundance and affordability are really, really dramatic,” he said.
Instead of just considering the technology industry’s direct emissions, Mr. Parker said, “what’s really important is what is the net impact of the technology,” after accounting for future energy savings in other sectors.
Secretary Wright: ‘Communities should choose’
And at the end of a wide-ranging interview, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told me that he supported communities right to decide whether or not they want data center as a neighbor.
“Communities should choose,” he said. “We’re not imposing data centers on anyone. We’re saying look at the trade-offs. The positives may be much bigger than the negatives.”
Wright, a former fossil fuel executive, likened the swelling backlash against data centers to the movement to curb hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
(Watch the conversation with Sec. Wright here.)
“The opposition to data centers, a lot of it is very hyped,” he said. “It’s like anti-fracking.” Wright added that critics say “it’s going to ruin your water. It’s going to drive up your prices and pollute your thing.” But, he argued, “it’s easy to scare people. It’s harder to reassure people.”
Despite President Trump’s enthusiastic support for the industry, public opposition to data centers has rapidly gained momentum in recent months amid concerns about the rising costs of electricity, skepticism about the societal benefits of A.I. and anxieties about their environmental effects. New York became the first state to issue a yearlong moratorium on new construction in July, and the issue has become a point of contention in the upcoming midterm elections.
Pearson repeated calls for a national moratorium on data center construction. “If these things were so good, they would be being built at Mar-a-Lago,” he said.
“It’s the billionaires versus the rest of us,” Pearson said.
Claire Brown and Maxine Joselow contributed reporting.
In their words
“I don’t think any of us, in our wildest dreams, expected this many fish this quickly to repatriate that area.”
Those are the words of Keith Parker, a senior fisheries biologist and member of the Yurok Tribe, which led the decades-long campaign to have dams of the Klamath River removed.
The river, which flows through Oregon and California, has been cleared of big barriers for the first time in more than a century after the largest dam removal project in American history. And, now, Rebecca Dzombak reports, a new study shows the river is experiencing a significant rebound of native chinook salmon. After years of contentious debate and careful planning, the last of four dams was removed in 2024.
The return of the salmon has already had an effect on local life, she writes: “Some tribes, including the Yurok, are already reaping the benefits of stronger fall chinook runs. The Yurok in August held their annual salmon festival; for the first time in years, they actually served salmon. They’re also distributing salmon to elders and schools.”
climate law
A second judge strikes down New York’s climate ‘superfund’ law
A second federal judge in New York has ruled that the state’s new climate “superfund” law is unconstitutional, dealing a blow to the nascent effort to popularize such measures around the country. The decision on Wednesday came from a challenge by the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The groundbreaking law would require fossil fuel companies to pay billions of dollars to cover the costs of climate change. Vermont and New York are the only states to have passed climate superfund laws, but they have been proposed in several other states. A legal challenge to Vermont’s law is also pending.
The plaintiffs in the cases have argued that the laws illegally encroach on the role of the federal government and its ability to balance environmental, energy and economic considerations. Republicans and the energy industry have vigorously opposed the proposed laws. — Karen Zraick
Related: Republicans Seek Protections for Oil Giants Against Climate Lawsuits
In case you missed it
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Less than a year ago, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas welcomed data centers and the state was poised to become an epicenter of the boom. But, now Abbott, a Republican running for re-election, is effectively halting the development of new data centers in the state.
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A group of civil-rights and free-speech lawyers said that they had identified “staggering” missteps in a $345 million verdict against Greenpeace last year and argued that the judgment should be overturned.
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A federal judge has dismissed a novel lawsuit filed by Michigan’s attorney general, a Democrat. The suit accused fossil fuel companies of creating a “cartel” and colluding to raise costs for residents by suppressing the development of renewable energy and concealing information about the risks of global warming.
One last thing
Why some schools are hitting the brakes on electric buses
Matthew Haag spoke to school districts that have introduced electric buses, fueled in part by $2.4 billion federal grants from the Biden administration. But, he reports, the “rollout has been rocky, rife with technical challenges and logistical headaches — and resistance from voters.” One school district in New York spent $1 million to electrify two buses. Other area have reported battery ranges that are low to handle some bus routes and repeated mechanical problems.
Related: A Brand-New Electric Bus, No Charge. (That Was One Problem.)
More climate news from around the web:
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Germany, which is Europe’s biggest economy, has pledged to phase out fossil fuels by 2045, The Guardian reports.
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Inside Climate News reports that scientists have estimated that more than 450,000 people are likely to die in the next six months from the additional heat the strong El Niño weather
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