Billionaires and their tech companies are trying to build data centers everywhere they can. They want to make billions building the infrastructure of AI, regardless of the toxic pollution and contaminated water data centers bring to communities across the country.
San Jose is an epicenter of this fight. Tech billionaires are fast-tracking a wave of new AI data center projects, including the proposed 1-million-square-foot Prologis development on the San Jose-Santa Clara wastewater facility site and an expanding Microsoft data center campus in Alviso. San Jose City Hall refuses to enact a moratorium, while Mayor Matt Mahan works hand-in-glove with the tech oligarchy to drive new AI data center construction.
PG&E itself projects its data center pipeline could push San Jose’s electricity use to nearly three times its current peak, and it will be San Jose residents, already facing PG&E rates that have nearly tripled over the past decade, who are left footing the bill. Meanwhile, the city closed a $50 million budget deficit by cutting the services working families depend on, while the richest companies on earth are welcomed with open arms.
Technology is not the problem. The question is who has the power to decide how this technology is used: the tech billionaires or ordinary people.
We, the residents of San Jose, demand that Mayor Mahan and the City Council:
- Enact a full AI data center moratorium in San Jose until extensive regulations are in place to curb the harmful impacts of AI in the hands of billionaires.
- Block any new electricity or water rate hikes to pay for data center energy demand. Tech billionaires should pay, not us.
- Deliver full economic and environmental reparations to Alviso, South San Jose, and Silver Creek Valley, the communities already bearing the costs of this industry.
- Tax the tech billionaires to close San Jose’s budget deficit and fund public education, housing, and free healthcare.
Sign the petition to tell San Jose City Hall to listen to its constituents: we need an AI data center moratorium now!
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