New Bernie Sanders AI Safety Bill Would Halt Data Center Construction
Dozens of cities and counties across the United States have introduced local moratoriums on data center development in response to local resistance. At least a dozen state legislatures – in Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming – have introduced state-level moratoriums this year.
But Sanders’ bill marks a significant departure from many of these pieces of legislation. The new bill focuses not only on the environmental and community impacts of data centers, but also on AI security as a whole. Since his announcement in December, Sanders has been outspoken about the potential dangers AI poses to society, particularly workers.
“It makes sense to me that his bill would focus primarily on this aspect,” says Mitch Jones, director of policy and litigation at Food and Water Watch, an environmental watchdog group that advised Sanders’ office on the moratorium. Food and Water Watch also organized the December letter from progressive groups.
The Pew poll found that Democrats are more likely to have a negative view of data centers, but national progressives aren’t the only ones expressing concerns. Before Sanders expressed opposition to data centers, some prominent Republican and MAGA politicians, including Rep. Thomas Massie, Sen. Josh Hawley, and then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, were already questioning the construction of data centers. Last month, Hawley and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal introduced a bill aimed at protecting customers from electricity rate hikes caused by data centers. In December, Steve Bannon, one of the most influential anti-AI voices in Washington, moderated a debate on his War Room podcast titled “Data Centers Are Eating Public Land.”
Many bills introduced at the state level were sponsored by Democratic politicians. (Food and Water Watch helped develop New York’s bill.) Bills in some states, including Oklahoma, were introduced by Republicans; The Georgia bill had both Democratic and Republican co-sponsors.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been particularly outspoken about the potential harm from data centers and artificial intelligence. “I don’t think there are a lot of people who want to have higher energy bills just so a chatbot can bribe a 13-year-old online,” DeSantis said during an AI panel discussion in February. In December, DeSantis approved legislation that would have established a bill of rights to protect consumers from potential AI-related harms, including banning minors from interacting with AI chatbots without parental consent, as well as a data center proposal to eliminate subsidies from tech companies and prohibit data centers from raising their electricity bills. The resulting AI bill of rights legislation passed the state Senate but died in the House.
The White House and big tech companies have acknowledged that the push to build data centers suffers from poor public perception. In March, representatives from major data center developers and AI companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Google, gathered at the White House to sign a non-binding agreement intended to make data centers pay “the full cost of their energy and infrastructure” and protect consumers from rate hikes. “Data centers…they need PR help,” President Donald Trump said at the event. Experts told WIRED that the deal signed at the White House was largely symbolic and that some of the deal’s main goals, including allowing data centers to absorb any additional costs on customer bills, are largely out of the hands of the White House and tech companies.
“A moratorium would limit internet capacity, slow critical services, eliminate hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs, drain billions in local tax revenue, and increase costs for American families and small businesses,” Cy McNeill, senior director of federal affairs at the Data Center Coalition, an industry group, said in an email. The industry, McNeill says, “remains committed to working with communities, local officials, state and federal policymakers, and the administration to ensure the responsible and continued development of this industry while protecting families and businesses.”
