SACE’s Stance on AI: Environmental Impact And Human Health Concerns
SACE recognizes several existential risks that come along with AI’s rapid adoption, including the rush to build fossil-fuel-based generation to meet the energy demand of data centers; negative impacts that rapid permitting and construction cause to the ecosystems surrounding new data centers; and risks associated with the fact that current AI design and implementation do not center human well-being. From considerations around how AI-based software could affect learning in public school classrooms to increasing emissions and pollution from the energy needed to operate data centers, this technology has far-reaching impacts.
Our stance on AI policy is designed to align with SACE’s mission to promote responsible and equitable energy choices that ensure clean, safe, healthy communities throughout the Southeast.
To support our mission and to protect our region’s communities from the risks associated with rushed and unchecked AI and data center development, SACE advocates for AI and associated data centers to slow down and implement thoughtfulness in implementation.
SACE Has Signed On to the NCDCN Response Letter
North Carolina Data Center Network (NCDCN) is a coalition of local grassroots organizations coordinated by the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. NCDCN is advocating on behalf of communities across North Carolina as North Carolina’s legislature considers policy related to data centers in the state. The response letter from NCDCN outlines where the NC AI Leadership Council’s Strategic Roadmap has fallen short in protecting NC communities from job loss, potential rising energy costs, and increasing pollution of air and water due to data center and AI expansion in the state.
SACE supports communities in the Southeast who want to consider and prioritize land, water, energy, and community impacts of AI and data centers. We signed onto NCDCN’s response letter to the NC AI Leadership Council’s Strategic Roadmap because the risks associated with AI rollout are not abstract for our region. Utilities across the Southeast have already proposed new fossil-fuel generation and delayed coal plant retirements specifically to meet projected data center load growth, in turn increasing costs and emissions for ratepayers who will likely see little benefit from the AI boom. NCDCN’s response rightly points out major environmental justice concerns that come with the current system for permitting and constructing data centers. These concerns are compounded when data center siting decisions are made quickly and with limited public input, leaving communities to discover the scale of a project’s water withdrawals, noise, or emissions only after permits have already been approved. This lack of oversight affects not only nearby communities but the surrounding ecological communities that are severely damaged or completely destroyed by the poorly regulated construction. The xAI facility in Memphis is one example of data center infrastructure that has already caused long-term negative impacts to surrounding communities. The voices of communities where data center projects are being considered must be included in any roadmap and policy considerations.
As the NCDCN letter points out, communities that allow data centers may end up with stranded assets if the AI sector takes a downturn, while those same communities still bear the burden of pollution to the air and water that is inevitable with the fossil-fuel-based infrastructure of current data center projects. North Carolina’s Strategic Roadmap currently has no policy recommendations addressing communities already experiencing pollution. These concerns need to be addressed in the Strategic Roadmap before data center projects are sited. State policy should require on-site clean energy generation to lower the burden on the local utility grid and mitigate the risk of further pollution to communities. Transparency is also a necessary foundation for any AI and data center policy: utilities and developers should be required to disclose energy and water usage projections, along with the source of power that will serve new facilities, so that regulators and the public can meaningfully evaluate the true cost of this growth.
To ensure these critical components are included in the state Roadmap, and to slow the dangerously fast pace of improperly regulated development, SACE affirms the need for a statewide moratorium on data center construction. Read the full response letter of NCDCN at the link below.
Read the NCDCN Response Letter
Evolving Technology Requires Us To Maintain A Dynamic And Evaluative Stance
AI, and its implications on communities and the environment, is actively changing with each new model and data center build. Our stance will continue to evolve as the AI industry develops until we have clear insight into the direction and magnitude AI and data center infrastructure will take within the Southeast. The Center for Humane Technology AI Roadmap proposes that, “AI should be designed to support our humanity, not exploit it. That means tools that strengthen real relationships and human connection.” SACE’s stance makes room for reevaluation and revision as we stand at the beginning of a new technology’s implementation. The goal will always be to center community voices, clean energy generation, and human-centered design when considering AI use and data center buildouts.
All future revisions to our AI stance will consider and embody new data published, along with concerns voiced by our community, environmental, and energy partners and stakeholders. We welcome continued dialogue with communities, utilities, policymakers, and industry as this technology develops, and we encourage others working on energy and environmental justice issues in the Southeast to review NCDCN’s letter and consider joining this growing coalition.
