The Data Center Resistance Is Coming To The State House
Scripts/language to help pass statewide data center moratoriums. Plus a national coalition call, status check in New York, organizing guides and more.
The data center resistance has grown organically, rising from the grassroots in communities across the country. $64 billion in data center projects have been blocked or delayed by local opposition, with 20 going down in the first quarter of 2026 alone, and earlier this week Seattle joined more than 70 cities and counties that have imposed moratoriums on them. (Monterey Park, California residents voted last week to ban them permanently.) Now we need to step up our organization, and get our state and national-level politicians, who have noticeably lagged behind the public anger, on board.
TOMORROW at 7PM ET, Food & Water Watch, Our Revolution, Third Act and more are holding a mass call to launch a national coalition fighting for a data center moratorium. They’re bringing together partners and organizers from across the country to connect, learn from each other’s successes, and talk about the critical campaigns already underway. ✋🏻 We can sign up to join them for this event here (and if we can’t make the call, sign up anyways for future updates!). ✋🏾
Meanwhile, we’re on the verge of a major victory. New York state legislators have passed Senator Kristen Gonzalez’s Senate Bill 9144A/Assembly Bill 10141A, pausing the permitting of new hyperscale data centers for three years and requiring the state Department of Environmental Conservation to develop regulations that could be adopted to mitigate their damaging effects. They’d be the first state in the nation to make this law. But Governor Kathy Hochul has not yet indicated whether she’s going to sign it, and we saw Janet Mills veto a similar bill passed in Maine earlier this year. 🗣️ If we’re in New York, let’s reach out to Governor Hochul and ask her to sign this bill. 🗣️
We should also urge our own state legislators and governors to step up. There have been moratoriums proposed in 18 states (we can find a list of the proposed bills from the National Conference of State Legislatures here and a tracker from pro-AI entrepreneur Will Manidis here), mostly following similar models of a one-to-three year pause and mandating the development of harm reduction regulations in the meantime. 🗣️ Let’s contact them to tell them to make passing these measures a priority. We can find call and email language and talking points to refer to below, or send them this message directly via Resistbot by texting SIGN PXDBHJ to 50409. 🗣️
🗣️ FWW has also set up an email tool we can use to encourage our members of Congress to support a national moratorium on new data centers. Let’s send them a message here. 🗣️
🫱🏾🫲🏼 Finally, Kairos has published an organizing guide on the costs of data centers and strategies advocates have used to fight back on a local and regional level, which activists can check out here. 🫱🏻🫲🏿
Last updated 6/10/26.
PHONE SCRIPTS
You can find contact info for your legislators here and for your governor here. Please adjust, add, and reword as you would see fit - you will be most effective speaking in your own words!
You can see if legislators in your state have already introduced a data center moratorium and get the bill number here or here.
Hi, my name is _________, and I’m a constituent from (city, zip). (If voicemail, leave street address).
I’m calling in support of (BILL NUMBER) passing a moratorium on new hyperscale data centers in our state as soon as possible.
We know they’re great for billionaires and Big Tech, let’s figure out how to make them work for working people.
(LONGER): Big corporations are making big profits off these centers. We’re paying the price, with high electric bills, strained water resources, light pollution, noise pollution, air pollution, heat pollution – they’re even heating up our neighborhoods! And they’re being forced on us, without consulting us and over our objections.
Regular Americans are saying hell no, we need our politicians to stand up.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
TALKING POINTS
Areas near hyperscale data centers have seen increases in electricity costs as much as 267%. A 2024 Virginia legislative report suggested typical electricity bills could go up by $168 to $444 a year by 2040 because of grid strain from data centers.
Large hyperscale data centers can use as much water as a city of 50,000 people every day.
The air pollution from powering data centers could be a $20 billion public health burden by 2028, contributing to 600,000 asthma cases and 1,300 premature deaths.
Hyperscale data centers create one job for every $13 million invested.
EMAIL LANGUAGE
We can send this message directly to our state legislators and governor by texting SIGN PXDBHJ to 50409. We can also find contact info for legislators here and for governors here.
We can see if legislators in our state have already introduced a data center moratorium and get the bill number here or here.
The explosive build-out of hyperscale data centers is sending shrapnel through our communities. State governments have a responsibility to stand with us as we try to shield ourselves.
Big Tech has made big promises about the economic impact of these facilities, and spent big money buying support for them. But these big corporations are ending up with the benefits, while we pay the price.
Areas near hyperscale data centers have seen increases in electricity costs as much as 267%. They’re straining our water resources, using as much as a city of 50,000 people every day. They’re worsening the climate crisis. They’re bringing more noise pollution, more light pollution, more air pollution, they’re heating up our neighorhoods. And all that to create one (1) job for every $13 million invested, while the companies behind them get billions in sweetheart tax breaks and set up the infrastructure tech bros claim will put massive numbers of us out of work. Yet they continue to be forced on our communities without consulting us and over our objections.
Just because these hubs are in billionaires’ interests doesn’t mean they’re in ours. We need to put a stop to this, so we can figure out how to make it work for regular people. Please support (BILL NUMBER)/a moratorium on new hyperscale data centers in our state ASAP.