Overview
- About 250 environmental organizations, including Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, sent a letter asking Congress to halt approvals and construction until stronger safeguards are in place.
- The coalition argues that AI- and crypto-driven server farms are accelerating fossil fuel use, straining water supplies and raising power costs, posing risks to communities and the climate.
- Local tensions escalated last week with protests at DTE’s Detroit headquarters over a proposed 1.4‑gigawatt supply for an OpenAI and Oracle facility and three arrests during a Wisconsin meeting on a 902‑megawatt site tied to the Stargate project.
- Analysts expect data center load to rise from roughly 40 gigawatts today to 106 gigawatts by 2035, with heavy growth in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and New Jersey and in rural areas.
- Electricity prices are up 13% this year and a Sunrun‑commissioned survey found eight in ten consumers worry about bill impacts, while policy responses remain fragmented with Minnesota adding guardrails, projects facing delays and President Trump signaling an executive order to preempt state AI rules.