Environmental groups urge Congress to halt construction of new data centers fueled by the AI and cryptocurrency boom

Environmental groups have called on Congress to impose a moratorium on permitting and construction of new data centers, arguing that the boom in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies has led to a surge in data centers, raising electricity costs and increasing fossil fuel use.

Org Letter: National Data Center Moratorium - National-Data-Center-Moratorium.pdf
(PDF file)

On December 8, 2025, the environmental group Food & Water Watch published a letter on behalf of over 350 nonprofit organizations addressed to US members of Congress, urging them to support a nationwide moratorium on the permitting and construction of new data centers.

Food & Water Watch pointed out that 'the rapid expansion of data centers in the United States, fueled by generative AI and the cryptocurrency boom, has become one of the greatest environmental and social threats of our time. This expansion is causing a surge in energy demand, accelerating fossil fuel pollution, depleting water resources, and causing nationwide electricity price hikes. These factors are further exacerbating the job loss, social instability, and economic concentration that have accompanied the expansion of generative AI,' and argued that the expansion of data centers has a variety of negative impacts.

Food & Water Watch predicts the following negative impacts:

Huge power consumption: If data centers triple in number over the next five years, their electricity consumption will be equivalent to that of approximately 30 million households.
Unsustainable water consumption: A tripling of data centers would require as much water as 18.5 million homes just to cool the computer servers.
Contribution to climate change: 56% of the electricity used to run data centers comes from fossil fuels.
Electricity prices are expected to rise sharply from 2021 to 2024, significantly outpacing inflation. This is primarily due to the rapid expansion of data centers, and is likely to continue to rise.
Job losses: AI industry executives predict that AI could replace half of entry-level white-collar jobs over the next five years, causing unemployment to soar by up to 20%.

In fact, the use of data centers has exploded in recent years, and some electric power companies are considering raising electricity rates.

The boom in AI data centers is spurring electricity demand, and some power companies are considering raising prices to expand the power grid - GIGAZINE

While the increased use of fossil fuels for power generation is also a concern, some tech companies are trying to go green by reusing waste heat from their data centers.

Google announces initiative to reuse waste heat from data centers for heating to cover 80% of local demand - GIGAZINE

'The rapid and largely unregulated expansion of data centers is disrupting communities across America and threatening our nation's economic, environmental, climate, and water security,' Food & Water Watch said. 'We urge you to join our call for a nationwide moratorium on new data center construction until sufficient regulations are enacted to fully protect communities, families, the environment, and health from the uncontrollable damage this industry is already causing.'