Sawt Falasteen - New Jersey city spurns data center as defiance spreads

Grassroots resistance to these computing fortresses is spreading across the United States, even as Big Tech pours hundreds of billions of dollars a year into AI infrastructure, pushing new projects into communities from coast to coast.

Forty miles (65 kilometers) from the New York skyline, rubble still litters a vacant lot in New Brunswick -- bordered by a railway line on one side and homes on the other.

This former automotive plant was where Amzak Capital Management had planned to build its complex. For now, it remains empty -- a trophy, activists say, for a community that fought back.

Residents learned of the project just nine days before a scheduled city council vote in mid-February.

They moved fast. A video went viral; flyers spread across the city, notably on the nearby campus of Rutgers University. More than 300 people showed up to proceedings held in a room with a seating capacity of barely 80.

Before the matter was even opened for public comment, the city council announced the data center component was being stripped from the redevelopment plan, recalled Ben Dziobek, founder of environmental advocacy group Climate Revolution Action Network.

"We've got tons of people reaching out to us from around the country asking us how we did it," said Charlie Kratovil, a Democratic mayoral candidate and member of environmental group Food & Water Action.

"It is definitely tapping into something that is bigger than any one of us."

New Brunswick Mayor James Cahill told AFP that while data centers have become critical to modern economies, "communities across the country are grappling with how to integrate them locally."

Key considerations, he said, include energy consumption, environmental impact, real estate footprint and benefit to local residents.

Those concerns resonated deeply in New Brunswick.

A 23-year-old resident who asked to be identified by the initials CJ noted that the data center would have been built in the middle of a working-class neighborhood, far from the businesses, hospitals, and university buildings of the more affluent city center.

For Brandon Guillebeaux, a longtime resident of this heavily Hispanic community, the trade-offs simply didn't add up.

"If it had brought thousands of jobs, it would have been worth it," he said. "But this was only going to be a few." Once operational, data centers typically employ very few workers on site.

- A precedent? -

A boom in generative AI has sent data center demand skyrocketing, with dozens of projects springing up across the United States.

The buildout comes at a cost: power-hungry facilities are straining local grids and driving up electricity bills, contributing to a nearly 17 percent jump in the average New Jersey household's energy costs last year.

Public sentiment is hardening. A recent Quinnipiac University poll found 65 percent of Americans oppose having a data center built in their community.

In early March, seven major AI sector players pledged to offset their electricity consumption by investing in new power generation -- though critics say voluntary commitments fall short of what is needed.

Other communities have pushed back, too. Last year, cities including Chandler, Arizona, and College Station, Texas, rejected proposed data centers -- though neither case drew the national attention that New Brunswick has.

"I really hope this sets a precedent," said CJ. "To show people that if they take action and publicly voice their opposition, they actually stand a chance" of winning.

That momentum is now reaching state capitals. In the coming weeks, Maine could become the first state to enact a moratorium on construction of these massive facilities -- which house millions of processors that form the backbone of the internet and AI.

In New Jersey -- the most densely populated state in the country -- numerous bills to regulate data centers are under consideration. Kratovil, the New Brunswick mayor, alongside prominent left-wing politicians including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is pushing for a more comprehensive statewide moratorium.

"We want feasibility studies and a pause, so we know the actual local impacts -- not just rushing ahead at full speed," said Dziobek.

Y.AlMasri--SF-PST