AI Data Center Boom Collides With Cities Worn Down by Heavy Industry

As the race among companies to build the infrastructure needed to run AI models accelerates, massive data centers are becoming a contentious issue within American communities. While tech companies tout promises of jobs and economic growth, many residents refuse to welcome these facilities into their neighborhoods—especially in cities that still bear the scars of decades of heavy industrialization.

When Fears Are a Lived Reality, Not a Hypothesis

For activist Shomar Betts, a son of the “Grays Ferry” neighborhood in southwest Philadelphia, talk of environmental harm is not merely theoretical. He grew up next to what was once the largest oil refinery on the East Coast of the United States, a refinery that shut down after a massive explosion in 2019.

Betts recounts that he did not realize the source of the chronic illnesses spreading among his family members and neighbors until he encountered an environmental group distributing flyers about the dangers of living near the refinery. He says: “I read the list of illnesses linked to pollution, and I found that in every house in the neighborhood someone was suffering from a disease on that list. From that moment I became fully engaged in the cause.” Today, Betts is leading a campaign to demand a freeze on data center construction in the city, after local officials identified two potential sites, one of them in his own neighborhood.

Resistance Not Limited to One City

Philadelphia is not alone in this pushback; the scope of opposition has widened across numerous American cities and towns, particularly those struggling with limited resources. However, the resistance appears sharpest in communities where the effects of heavy industry are still visible.

At a protest gathering outside Philadelphia City Hall, activist Sonia Sanders summed up residents' position by saying they do not want the pollution or the noise, and do not believe promises of job opportunities. Sanders linked her husband's death from a rare cancer to emissions from the old refinery, arguing that the pursuit of profit is what took his life.

The Scale of the Expected Environmental Impact

The impact of a single data center may not reach the severity of the harm caused by a refinery that once processed hundreds of thousands of barrels a day, but the breadth of the AI race makes the overall picture alarming. According to projections by BloombergNEF, by 2035 American data centers will consume more natural gas than Germany and Japan combined—a figure that is nearly double the estimates from just nine months earlier.

• Burning one cubic foot of natural gas releases the equivalent of 60 grams of carbon dioxide.
• The new demand is expected to add roughly one million tons of greenhouse gas emissions daily, equivalent to 12% of the current total U.S. emissions.
• A 2021 Harvard University study concluded that air pollution from fossil fuels is responsible for one in every five deaths worldwide.

Added to this are concerns over the hundreds of backup diesel generators in the planned centers, which may be operated during heat waves instead of relying on an already overburdened power grid.

Growing Official Response

It appears that citizens' voices are beginning to reach decision-makers. In New York State, Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order temporarily halting the granting of permits for major projects, affirming that these centers should only be built in places willing to welcome them.

Several American cities have also passed moratorium resolutions on data center construction, including Denver, Indianapolis, Asheville, Charlotte, and Reno, aiming to give officials time to gather fuller information about the potential impacts.

Concerns Beyond the Environment

Residents' worries are not limited to pollution but extend to privacy, surveillance, and the depletion of water and electricity at the expense of needy neighborhoods. More than a hundred people took part in the inaugural gathering of the “No Data Centers in Philadelphia” campaign, a scene that reflects the growing community awareness.

The question posed to AI companies and regulators remains: how can technological progress be achieved without burdening the most vulnerable communities with its environmental and health costs? It is a difficult equation, but the rising tide of grassroots resistance makes ignoring it impossible.

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