Since Monterey Park in California became the first city in the U.S. to ban data centers, activists across the country have sought them out for advice on pushing back against data centers in their cities.
Data center jobs are in high demand, and wage growth in the sector is outpacing the rest of the labor market. But the benefits of that growth are limited.
Big Tech is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build out the energy-hungry infrastructure of AI, and many are turning to “behind-the-meter” solutions to get things up and running as quickly as possible.