Data centers in California

"San Diego is a city of innovation, and I want us to continue leading in the technologies and jobs of the future. But we cannot allow a rapidly expanding industry to get ahead of the rules needed to protect our residents."

"I have a hard time remembering something that caught fire the way the opposition to data centers has. Local municipalities have been able to respond quicker to the grassroots wave of opposition of people saying, Hold on, let's press pause. Let's actually figure out what we're doing before we commit to this huge change."

"I've seen many projects in my time. What we don't need is a resource-guzzling data center in the middle of our city."

Rep. Scott Peters stated that a data center is not neighborhood serving and does not belong on this site, which should instead be developed as housing.

Councilmember Marni von Wilpert expressed concern that the development plan may have changed from housing and commercial use to a potential data center.

City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, who represents the district, says she only learned the data center was part of the mix through press coverage.

Mayor Matt Mahan said the city should lead in shaping how data center investments benefit municipalities and opposed an outright ban.

The Riverside Record founder and publisher discusses communities pushing back against data centers in California.

Both ultimately said new data centers should not increase local electricity costs, although Tucker initially said the issue should be left to local governments.

"Moratoriums are temporary solutions, but our communities deserve the right tools and the proper avenues to determine meaningful accountability and oversight when AI Data Centers directly impact our energy, water and land usage during a worsening climate crisis."

Dixon Vice Mayor Jim Ernest said the city is not currently considering a data center project

Molly Taft said hundreds of new data centers have popped up across the country, sparking backlash from residents over water usage, energy consumption, and economic concerns.

Molly Taft said the Trump administration came in guns blazing on American AI, and data centers suddenly started cropping up in places where they had not traditionally been before, but neither left nor right politicians were prepared for a truly grassroots movement opposing their construction.

Richard Frank, Senior Fellow at the California Environmental Law & Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law, and Matthew McKerley, a land use attorney, stated that Proposition 45 would fast track the construction of data centers by rolling back state environmental protections.

PG&E CEO Patti Poppe says California AI and data center boom is bringing fresh demand to the state's power grid

Molly Taft, senior climate reporter at WIRED, said data center opposition is uniting people from the complete opposite ends of the political spectrum, unlike most other political issues.

Russell Vandenberg, SoCal Fair and Events Center CEO, said that no construction for a data center has been approved

Global Stack USA CEO Dan Kang said the company aims to build similar edge data centers on fairgrounds across the state, with Perris being evaluated as part of that vision

Global Stack described edge data centers as the size of a shipping container or snack bar with lower environmental impact than larger data centers built for artificial intelligence

Digital Realty CEO Andy Power said the project will strengthen intercontinental connectivity across the company's Los Angeles campus and create a more scalable environment for customers connecting across regions.

Governor Gavin Newsom said California enacted the strongest data center protections in the nation, aimed at increasing oversight and preventing electricity, water, and infrastructure costs from being shifted to local communities and ratepayers

Mark Specht, senior manager for the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said it is extremely frustrating to try to understand basic information about data centers.

Newsom ordered officials to accelerate AI oversight and develop recommendations for an emergency kill switch for frontier AI models

Edward Ring, Director of Water and Energy Policy at Californians for Energy and Water Abundance, argues concerns about data center water and energy use may be overstated

Microsoft's newest liquid cooled AI data centers use direct to chip closed loops with zero water evaporation

Senator Steve Padilla said the bills will ensure that datacenters pay for energy grid connection, for electricity generation costs, and for a larger share of wildfire mitigation and liability costs.

Jerry McNerney, state senator, said the bills ensure data centers absorb the costs of their energy use, not California ratepayers

Newsom said: While the Trump administration moves toward deregulation, communities are left to deal with the consequences , higher electricity demand, grid constraints, water use, and pollution. With these laws, we are ensuring that Californians remain in the driver's seat , and that those profiting from data centers aren't doing so at our expense.

Sen. Steve Padilla introduced Senate Bills 886 and 887 to ensure data centers pay transmission infrastructure costs and larger share of wildfire mitigation

Sam Uden, co founder and managing director at Net Zero California, said state lawmakers have met the moment with robust set of protections.

Mark W. Toney, executive director of Utility Reform Network, praised laws saying they protect ratepayers from subsidizing data center energy consumption.

Amy Bodek, Department of Regional Planning Director, issued memorandum as interim guidance while county moves to codify prohibition in zoning regulations

Eric Guerra, councilmember sitting on California Air Resource Board, is opposed to data center projects due to concerns about air quality, cost of water and utility.

Microsoft says its newest liquid cooled AI data centers use direct to chip closed loops with zero water evaporation

Mashika Allgood stated one data center can use more than 1 million gallons of water a day

Darren Eades, JLL Senior Managing Director, said pricing has become less important for groups that need capacity quickly, and developers are tying up land and beginning entitlement and development work, with a couple of groups preparing to announce their first significant Southern California deployments.

JLL said resistance to data centers in Nevada, Utah, and Arizona due to limited power capacity and community opposition is pushing developers back toward Southern California.

Vernon, a Southern California city with its own utility, is approaching capacity and needs infrastructure expansion before taking more data center projects.

Amazon data center project on 56 acre parcel zoned for heavy industrial use is not affected by the moratorium; Amazon is said to be considering a second data center which would be halted by the freeze.

San Francisco data center codes have not been updated since 2001.

San José Mayor Matt Mahan announced a deal with PG&E to guarantee power availability and quick connections for 10 major data center projects in the coming years

Matthew McKerley, environmental attorney with Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP, said Prologis is bankrolling Proposition 45 to silence communities on data center siting.

PG&E contributed $500,000 to the Yes on Proposition 45 campaign.

Assemblyman Rick Zbur authored legislation requiring the California Public Utilities Commission to create a special electricity rate structure for large data centers so power costs don't shift to regular ratepayers

Prologis contributed $250,000 to the Yes on Proposition 45 campaign through its Modern Infrastructure Alliance Action Fund.

Doug Burgum, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, said the administration wants to support companies like Prologis and committed to accelerating permitting.

The proposed legislation requires data centers to sign long term contracts to purchase power, cover wildfire related costs, and contribute to grid upgrades

Experts say insufficient public data makes verification of data center water use claims impossible

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said it takes 38,000 ChatGPT queries to use as much water as producing a single almond in California

Steven Greenhut argues that data center hysteria is channeling the public's inchoate fears about the rapid expansion of AI and is a flash point for anger at tech moguls and billionaires

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated plan aims to advance cooperative federalism with states; rule expected to be finalized next year

Thompson said local communities should take the lead and urged slowing data center development

Thompson said data centers need protections for water, electric rates and workers

Eric Jones called for a national moratorium on data centers

Mike Thompson said data centers could displace farms, consume water, and create few jobs

Thompson said we need to pump the brakes on data center rollout and require local control

Carroll Fife, Oakland councilwoman, said she has been working on a proposal for a moratorium on data centers

Randy Villegas calling for one year moratorium on new data center construction in Central Valley

Pradeep K. Khosla, Chancellor, said the research has potential to transform how AI data centers interact with the electric grid

Brian Balderston, director of infrastructure and data centers for SDSC, said data centers can be active participants in grid stability

City officials said the additional time will allow Patterson to examine potential effects on water supplies, energy infrastructure, air quality and noise levels.

Patterson remains in the early stages of determining how it will regulate the developments.

Gavin Newsom previously vetoed similar water disclosure legislation in October 2025, stating he was reluctant to impose rigid reporting requirements without understanding full impact on businesses

Jim Trout is CEO with experience as president of CRG West and Senior VP at Digital Realty Trust