California’s Bay Area debates data centres ahead of US midterm elections

Seven Bay Area cities have passed data centre moratoriums, despite the region’s reputation as a hub for AI innovation.

Protesters demonstrate against data centres outside California's Oakland City Hall in September [Saumya Roy/Al Jazeera]

Oakland, California – Protesters dressed as cardboard robots chanted and danced to a drumbeat as they protested against new data centres outside Oakland City Hall last month.

Their concerns largely focused on how the centres — which process large amounts of digital information — might strain the energy grid.

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The result, they argued, would not only be environmental harm but also sky-high electricity bills for local households.

“Power prices have gone up so much in Oakland that some people are thinking of shutting off their power,” said Carlos Gutierrez, an activist for Communities for a Better Environment, an environmental justice group.

“And the city is planning to provide power to a data centre instead.”

Opposition to data centres is growing across the United States, as residents express concern about their rapid expansion.

More than 3,000 data centres already operate in the country, with more than 1,500 others in development, according to the Pew Research Center.

But the backlash is perhaps most striking in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, a region considered to be the heart of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Major AI companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta are based in the Bay Area, and the industry’s growth has been credited with fuelling a local economic renaissance.

Data centres house the advanced computer chips and servers needed to run AI-powered services such as Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

But they also require 24-hour power and a large supply of water to cool their processors.

Even with such cooling technology, data centres are notorious for emitting heat, leading to an increase in land surface temperatures as high as 9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Fahrenheit).

A couple sits on the steps of Oakland City Hall in California next to a sign that reads, ‘No data center in Oakland’ [Saumya Roy/Al Jazeera]

A midterm election issue

Concerns about the cost of rapid data centre growth, both environmentally and financially, have catapulted the issue into the discourse around Tuesday’s midterm elections.

In the final two months before the vote, at least seven Bay Area cities, including San Francisco and Richmond, have passed temporary moratoriums on data centre construction.

They include Oakland, which passed a data centre moratorium on October 6, after days of protest.

Local politicians competing in Tuesday’s midterms have also used the topic as a wedge issue, to rally support among certain pockets of voters.

One of the most closely watched races in the Bay Area is for the seat left vacant by longtime Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. After 39 years in the House of Representatives, Pelosi is retiring at the end of the year.

Two Democrats are competing in Tuesday’s election to fill her position in Congress: San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan and state Senator Scott Wiener.

Each one has staked out a different position on AI data centres. Wiener, for instance, opposes any ban on data centres.

“A blanket data centre moratorium could undermine AI regulation,” he told the publication Mission Local.

Chan, meanwhile, has pledged to seek a nationwide moratorium on data centres, at least until responsible AI regulation is put in place.

“Let’s start with a moratorium on data centres. Allow us to have that moment to regulate artificial intelligence,” she said at a debate in October.

Chan played a leading role in passing San Francisco’s moratorium in early October.

A poll from the University of Southern California showed Wiener leading Chan 47 percent to 41, as of mid-October.

Congressional candidate Connie Chan, left, stands next to outgoing US Representative Nancy Pelosi and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown at a campaign event in San Francisco, California, on May 29, 2026 [File: Manuel Orbegozo/Reuters]

Navigating public backlash

“Right now, data centre opposition is an issue that unifies the US public like no other,” said Shum Preston, a political analyst based in San Francisco.

So far, there has been relatively little opposition to the data centre moratoriums in local hearings. But he speculates that there may be several reasons for the lack of pushback to the bans.

Among them are the surveys indicating widespread public backlash to data centre creation.

An October CNBC poll found that 63 percent of registered US voters oppose building data centres within 16 kilometres, or 10 miles, of their homes.

“Data centres poll very poorly, and developers probably don’t want to put their supervisor friends in trouble ahead of elections. So they probably let this pass,” Preston said.

He also signalled that the short-term nature of the moratoriums may be a factor.

Certain Bay Area cities like San Francisco, Brisbane and Oakland paused construction on data centres for 45 days, with the option to extend the ban later.

Opponents of the moratoriums “will be more vocal when” the 45 days end, Preston said. By that time, the heat of the midterm election season will also have settled, he added.

“That’s when the hearings will get more contentious,” he said.

Opponents of data centres have cited environmental costs as well as higher utility bills as reasons to ban their construction [Saumya Roy/Al Jazeera]

Another hurdle facing the moratoriums is the lack of transparency surrounding data centre construction.

Supervisor Shamann Walton, who sponsored San Francisco’s moratorium ordinance, has argued that the city’s definition of “data centres” is outdated.

Created in 2001 — long before the AI boom — the city planning code defines data centres as “internet service exchanges”, a definition that may not accurately characterise the technology today.

Walton said the outdated language has made it hard for authorities to count how many data centres exist in the city.

Not being able to identify data centres can also prevent city officials from monitoring their power and water usage.

“We cannot use 2001 rules to regulate 2026 technology,” he said in a September 14 statement.

Another issue is the time it takes to carry out the necessary environmental assessments. The moratoriums may not offer enough time for a comprehensive review.

“Forty-five days is hardly enough time to document and study the impacts and then frame regulations,” said Roger Lin, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, a US environmental nonprofit.

He added that legal barriers limit access to such information from the data centres themselves.

“Data centres often have nondisclosure agreements, so even local air quality boards may not know the impact of data centres on air quality,” said Lin.

Supporters tout economic benefits

Still, AI industry supporters have touted the growth of the data centres as evidence of a flourishing industry, with positive downstream effects for US communities.

Anthropic, for instance, is preparing an initial public offering (IPO) that is likely to raise billions of dollars.

But critics warn that the company’s growth may not translate into an economic boom for the San Francisco Bay Area overall.

Instead, residents fear unequal economic growth that primarily benefits the wealthy. Already, San Francisco faces some of the highest and fastest-growing home rental prices in the country.

At a hearing at San Francisco City Hall, a resident vented their frustrations about the data centres to the supervisors.

“This city is less for humans and more for robots and billionaires,” the resident said.

尽管旧金山湾区素有人工智能创新中心的美誉，但该地区已有七个城市通过了数据中心建设禁令。

9月，抗议者在加州奥克兰市政厅外示威，反对数据中心建设。[Saumya Roy/半岛电视台]

加利福尼亚州奥克兰——上个月，一群装扮成纸板机器人的抗议者在奥克兰市政厅外，伴着鼓点高喊口号、载歌载舞，抗议新建数据中心。

他们主要担心的是，这些处理大量数字信息的中心可能会给电网带来压力。

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他们认为，这样做不仅会破坏环境，还会导致当地居民的电费飙升。

“奥克兰的电价上涨如此之多，以至于有些人正在考虑断电，”环境正义组织“社区改善环境”的活动家卡洛斯·古铁雷斯说。

“而市政府计划改用电力为数据中心供电。”

美国各地对数据中心的反对声浪日益高涨，居民们对数据中心的快速扩张表示担忧。

据皮尤研究中心的数据显示，该国已有超过 3000 个数据中心投入运营，另有超过 1500 个正在建设中。

但这种反弹在加利福尼亚州的旧金山湾区或许最为显著，该地区被认为是人工智能 (AI) 蓬勃发展的中心。

Anthropic、OpenAI 和 Meta 等主要人工智能公司都位于旧金山湾区，该行业的增长被认为推动了当地经济的复兴。

数据中心容纳了运行人工智能服务（例如 Anthropic 的 Claude 和 OpenAI 的 ChatGPT）所需的先进计算机芯片和服务器。

但它们也需要 24 小时供电和大量的水来冷却处理器。

即使有了这样的冷却技术，数据中心仍然会散发热量，导致地表温度升高高达 9 摄氏度（16 华氏度）。

一对夫妇坐在加利福尼亚州奥克兰市政厅的台阶上，旁边立着一块牌子，上面写着“奥克兰不允许设立数据中心”。[Saumya Roy/半岛电视台]

中期选举议题

人们对数据中心快速增长带来的环境和经济成本的担忧，已经使这个问题成为周二中期选举讨论的焦点。

在投票前的最后两个月里，包括旧金山和里士满在内的至少七个湾区城市通过了暂时中止数据中心建设的法令。

其中包括奥克兰，该市在经过数天的抗议后，于 10 月 6 日通过了数据中心建设禁令。

参加周二中期选举的地方政客们也利用这一话题作为分裂议题，以争取某些选民群体的支持。

湾区最受关注的选举之一是争夺长期担任民主党领袖的南希·佩洛西卸任后留下的空缺席位。在众议院任职39年后，佩洛西将于年底退休。

周二的选举中，两名民主党人将角逐填补她在国会的席位：旧金山监事康妮·陈和州参议员斯科特·维纳。

他们对人工智能数据中心持有不同的立场。例如，维纳反对任何禁止数据中心的措施。

他告诉《Mission Local》杂志：“全面暂停数据中心建设可能会削弱人工智能监管。”

与此同时，陈承诺将寻求在全国范围内暂停建设数据中心，至少在负责任的人工智能监管措施到位之前如此。

“让我们先暂停建设数据中心。给我们一些时间来规范人工智能，”她在10月份的一次辩论中说道。

陈在10月初旧金山通过暂停令的过程中发挥了主导作用。

南加州大学的一项民意调查显示，截至 10 月中旬，维纳以 47% 对 41% 的支持率领先陈。

2026年5月29日，国会候选人康妮·陈（左）在加利福尼亚州旧金山的一次竞选活动中，与即将卸任的美国众议员南希·佩洛西和前旧金山市长威利·布朗站在一起。[图片：Manuel Orbegozo/路透社]

应对公众舆论反弹

“目前，数据中心的反对问题比任何其他问题都能更团结美国公众，”旧金山政治分析家舒姆·普雷斯顿说。

到目前为止，在地方听证会上，针对数据中心建设禁令的反对声相对较小。但他推测，这种阻力较小可能有几个原因。

其中包括一些调查显示公众对数据中心建设普遍持反对态度。

CNBC 10 月份的一项民意调查发现，63% 的美国注册选民反对在距离家 16 公里（10 英里）的范围内建设数据中心。

普雷斯顿说：“数据中心的支持率很低，开发商可能不想在选举前给他们的监事朋友惹麻烦，所以他们可能就放任不管了。”

他还暗示，暂停令的短期性质可能是一个因素。

旧金山、布里斯班和奥克兰等湾区部分城市暂停了数据中心的建设，为期 45 天，并可选择在之后延长禁令。

普雷斯顿表示，45天期限结束后，反对暂停令的人士“会更加积极地发声”。他还补充说，到那时，中期选举的紧张气氛也将逐渐消退。

“到那时，听证会将会变得更加激烈，”他说。

数据中心的反对者指出，数据中心会造成环境成本增加以及公用事业费用上涨，因此要求禁止建设数据中心。[Saumya Roy/半岛电视台]

暂停令面临的另一个障碍是数据中心建设缺乏透明度。

旧金山暂停数据中心建设条例的发起人、监事沙曼·沃尔顿认为，该市对“数据中心”的定义已经过时。

该城市规划法规制定于 2001 年——远在人工智能热潮之前——将数据中心定义为“互联网服务交换中心”，这一定义可能无法准确地描述当今的技术。

沃尔顿表示，过时的措辞使得当局难以统计该市有多少个数据中心。

无法识别数据中心也可能导致市政官员无法监控其电力和用水量。

“我们不能用 2001 年的规则来规范 2026 年的技术，”他在 9 月 14 日的一份声明中说。

另一个问题是开展必要的环境评估所需的时间。暂停令可能不足以提供足够的时间进行全面审查。

“45 天的时间根本不足以记录和研究其影响，然后制定相关法规，”美国环境非营利组织生物多样性中心的高级律师罗杰·林表示。

他还补充说，法律障碍限制了从数据中心本身获取此类信息。

林说：“数据中心通常都有保密协议，所以即使是地方空气质量委员会也可能不知道数据中心对空气质量的影响。”

支持者们大力宣传经济效益。

尽管如此，人工智能行业的支持者们仍然将数据中心的增长视为该行业蓬勃发展的证据，并认为这将对美国社区产生积极的下游影响。

例如，Anthropic公司正在准备首次公开募股（IPO），预计将筹集数十亿美元。

但批评人士警告说，该公司的增长可能不会给旧金山湾区带来整体经济繁荣。

相反，居民们担心经济增长不平衡，主要受益者是富人。目前，旧金山的房屋租金价格已位居全美最高且增长速度最快的城市之列。

在旧金山市政厅举行的一次听证会上，一位居民向监管人员表达了他对数据中心的不满。

“这座城市与其说是为人类而建，不如说是为机器人和亿万富翁而建，”这位居民说道。