{"id":213756,"date":"2026-05-13T10:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T14:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/opposition-to-resource-hungry-artificial-intelligence-data-centers-spreads-across-the-u-s-like-wildfire\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T08:00:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:00:30","slug":"opposition-to-resource-hungry-artificial-intelligence-data-centers-spreads-across-the-u-s-like-wildfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/opposition-to-resource-hungry-artificial-intelligence-data-centers-spreads-across-the-u-s-like-wildfire\/","title":{"rendered":"Opposition to Resource Hungry Artificial Intelligence Data Centers Spreads Across the U.S. Like Wildfire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/btlonline.org\/opposition-to-resource-hungry-ai-data-centers-spreads-across-the-u-s\/\">Opposition to Resource Hungry Artificial Intelligence Data Centers Spreads Across the U.S. Like Wildfire<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/btlonline.org\/opposition-to-resource-hungry-ai-data-centers-spreads-across-the-u-s\/\">https:\/\/btlonline.org\/opposition-to-resource-hungry-ai-data-centers-spreads-across-the-u-s\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-13 10:09:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"btlonline.org\">btlonline.org<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Baltimore City Council Moratorium<\/strong>: On May 11, the Baltimore City Council announced a moratorium on building AI data centers, joining over 60 local governments across the country in this action. <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Maine Legislature&#8217;s Stance<\/strong>: Maine was the first state to pass a law imposing a statewide moratorium, although it was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. Instead, she established a commission to study the issue, though the legislature\u2019s veto override failed.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Opposition from Food &amp; Water Watch<\/strong>: Food &amp; Water Watch became the pioneering national group advocating for a data center moratorium in October, a call now supported by over 250 organizations nationwide. Thomas Meyer from Food &amp; Water Watch argues for pausing data center development until sustainable practices are found.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Environmental and Job Concerns<\/strong>: Data centers are energy-intensive, requiring significant water, causing pollution, and generating few jobs. Thomas Meyer&#8217;s research shows that investments in data centers yield fewer permanent jobs compared to non-data center projects.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Bipartisan Local Opposition<\/strong>: Debates over data centers have seen bipartisan opposition locally, with local governments often leading the charge against large-scale projects.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Limited Future Viability<\/strong>: Thomas Meyer suggests that traditional, fossil-fuel-powered data centers aren&#8217;t sustainable. There are less resource-intensive alternatives, but these are less common due to higher costs and the industry&#8217;s preference for more resource-intensive options.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>State-by-State Conditions<\/strong>: Conditions for lifting moratoriums will likely vary by state until there\u2019s a national framework for sustainable data center development.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Continued Advocacy in Maine<\/strong>: While the veto in Maine effectively halted statewide moratorium for the current session, local efforts to impose moratoria or restrictions persist, representing the most resolute opposition currently.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Opposition to Resource Hungry Artificial Intelligence Data Centers Spreads Across the U.S. Like Wildfire https:\/\/btlonline.org\/opposition-to-resource-hungry-ai-data-centers-spreads-across-the-u-s\/&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":213757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/btlonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/260513c-datacenterslight300x200.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-213756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213758,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213756\/revisions\/213758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}