Washington, DC — On Friday, the Athena coalition joined other public advocates in calling on the White House to prioritize people and the planet over the interests of tech and energy executives – and to recognize the risk that Big Tech’s AI-fueled data center growth could hurl us further and faster into climate catastrophe.

In neighborhoods across the nation, sprawling data centers packed with row upon row of constantly-humming computers guzzling massive amounts of energy and water are being built that threaten to increase our dependence on dirty energy. Big Tech and Big Energy executives who attend the White House meeting stand to profit from this dangerous overconsumption while workers, consumers and environmental advocates are being shut out of the conversation. The public interest groups’ letter notes that many of the companies at the meeting—like Amazon, Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia—are currently being sued by the Biden administration for harming workers and monopolizing industries.

“This important policy conversation impacts all of us and the American people need to be included, not just big business CEOs,” said Emily Peterson-Cassin, Director of Corporate Power at Demand Progress Education Fund. “The Biden administration’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights showed admirable concern and care about regulating AI. We’re asking them to show the same level of concern and care for the environmental, labor and consumer impacts of building massive data centers across the nation to power AI companies.”

“When Big Tech and utility monopolies collude to set public energy policy, we should all be concerned,” stated Ryan Gerety, Director of the Athena Coalition. “As part of an AI-boom, tech corporations are racing to build energy-hungry data centers with little actual attention paid to consequences for the planet and public. Today, coal plants are staying open so that the richest corporations in the world get the energy they want. Meanwhile, investor-owned utility monopolies are happy to turn a profit. If this continues, the public will pay higher energy costs, and we will have failed to build the clean energy infrastructure we need for the future of people and the planet.”

“Projected energy demand to supply planned AI-related data centers are upending U.S. power markets, straining the grid and exposing American households to higher energy burdens and increased toxic fossil fuel emissions. It is essential that our AI policies prominently feature public interest, consumer and environmental groups at the table to ensure that the perspectives of working families are adequately represented in policy discussions,” said Tyson Slocum, Energy Program Director for Public Citizen.

“Data centers fueled by AI are receiving enormous state and local tax abatements, undermining public budgets and shifting the burden onto homeowners and small businesses,” said Greg LeRoy, Executive Director of Good Jobs First. “Any federal efforts on data centers need to center community benefits and sound budgeting first.”

“The Biden administration is currently allowing data centers to run amok, jumping in line for access to power and allowing investor-owned utilities to soak ratepayers for new construction,” stated Jeff Ordower, North America Director of 350.org. “We need energy policy that transitions us away from fossil fuels, not where big data and utilities collaborate on how to double down on the status quo.”

“This is a marriage of two monopolized industries that will prove extremely costly for American electricity consumers who had no representation at this meeting,” said John Farrell, Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Director of ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative. “Data centers have already received as much as $2 million per job in public subsidies, and investor-owned utilities are eagerly offering sweetheart deals to these data centers so they can profit from building the electric grid infrastructure to serve Big Tech’s desires.”

“AI data centers have rapidly become one of the largest threats to affordable, reliable, and clean power in Indiana,” said Ben Inskeep, Program Director at Citizens Action Coalition. “We need our elected leaders to stand up for consumers and protect us from these multi-trillion-dollar Big Tech companies that only care about increasing profit regardless of the consequences to the communities hosting their data centers.”

“We work at Amazon and we see first-hand the many strategies (e.g. PR misdirection and creative accounting) that senior leadership employs to greenwash and mislead the public about the true environmental impact of its data center operations. This is why it is critical that Big Tech and industry groups cannot be the only stakeholders in discussions about the future of AI infrastructure. Workers and civil society must have a seat at the table as well,” stated Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.

Read the letter below:

Dear President Biden, Chief of Staff Zients, and Director Brainard:

As organizations who advocate for the public good and conduct independent research on the social implications of technology, we write to express our concern regarding the recent White House roundtable on U.S. Leadership in AI Infrastructure held on September 12, 2024, with executives from technology and energy corporations. After meeting with these special interest groups, the White House announced a set of priorities on data centers and energy infrastructure. We are alarmed about the lack of inclusive representation from key stakeholders in this process, and are concerned resulting policies will benefit the largest tech and energy monopolies at the expense of people and the planet.

The rapid growth of Big Tech’s data centers, coupled with the interests of investor-owned utility monopolies and the fossil fuel industry, could threaten our ability to transition away from dirty energy in the coming years, reversing hard won progress by the Administration. A handful of tech corporations are rapidly building data centers that each use as much electricity as small or even large cities , and at the same time, our energy infrastructure is already failing to meet existing capacity and climate demands. Coal plants that would have been retired are staying open, closed nuclear plants are being reopened, natural gas-fired power plants are expanding, and regular people are likely to pay increased prices for electricity. In nearby communities, both on-site and secondary energy infrastructure, from gas-powered generators to dedicated electrical substations, are sources of air and noise pollution that directly harm people and the environment.

Meanwhile, tech corporations are underreporting their climate impact, walking back emissions reduction commitments, and lobbying for weaker emissions reporting standards.

The White House roundtable was notably devoid of input from crucial public interest groups, including climate, labor, and consumer advocates. This omission undermines the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the strategies being developed, and raises concerns about the conclusions and information gathered at the meeting, as well as the Administration’s priorities. The invitees to the meeting might take it as given that building endless tech infrastructure will lead to greater prosperity, but prioritizing speculative corporate profits over public health and clean energy commitments jeopardizes our future.

Meanwhile, the public is subsidizing energy-hungry data center expansion and bearing the cost of sweetheart energy deals between the two sectors. States and localities are giving tech corporations like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft sales tax exemptions on both building materials and equipment, utility tax exemptions or discounts, property tax abatements, and corporate income tax credits. In states as diverse as Washington, Illinois, and Virginia, the costs of these incentives have risen by three-to-four-digit percentages in recent years. Those are in addition to government contracts, federal energy tax credits, and higher utility costs for captive utility customers. In data center-heavy states, soaring tax revenue losses are undermining public education at the very moment we have a national consensus that more education spending is necessary, for instance on STEM education to help address the nation’s skilled labor shortage.

We were especially disappointed to see that many of the companies that were invited to represent corporate interests in this meeting are being sued for illegal business practices. Your administration is suing Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta for breaking antitrust laws. In addition, the FTC has launched an inquiry into Microsoft, Open AI and Anthropic (as well as Amazon and Alphabet, previously mentioned) to scrutinize partnerships that may threaten competition in the very industry discussed at the September 12 convening. The Department of Justice has reportedly issued subpoenas to Nvidia in an antitrust investigation. Inviting these companies to opine on policies that stand to increase their profits and market share serves to undermine not only the pending litigation your administration is bravely undertaking, but also public trust in any AI infrastructure policies that result from the September 12 meeting. The administration brought these cases to address the threat of consolidation in the technology sector, but the race to expand data center infrastructure and secure exclusive power deals only serves to entrench consolidation and undermine U.S. innovation.

Incorporating the perspectives of stakeholders is not just a matter of inclusivity but a necessary step to create well-rounded policies that align with the Administration’s goals of responsible innovation, AI safety and clean energy. Without the participation of the people who will be most affected by AI, tech governance efforts—including policies around data, energy infrastructure, and water —are likely to consolidate the most harmful impacts of new technologies.

Thank you for your time and attention to these concerns. We look forward to discussing how AI infrastructure can be built with the best interests of the public in mind together with inclusion of environmental, labor, consumer, and utility customer stakeholders.

Sincerely,

Demand Progress Education Fund
Athena Coalition
350 National
Accountable Tech
Access Now
Adasina Social Capital
Amazon Employees for Climate Justice
Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network
Blue Future
Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund
Center for Digital Democracy
Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Inc.
Data and Society
Food and Water Watch
For the Many
Free Press Action
Green America
Good Jobs First
Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Missouri Workers Center
National Consumer Law Center, on behalf of its low-income clients
National Employment Law Project
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
NextGen Competition
Open Markets Institute
People’s Tech Project
PowerSwitch Action
Public Citizen
Revolving Door Project
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project
The Tech Oversight Project
Turkopticon
U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)