Ro Khanna

Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) has introduced a new resolution calling on the House of Representatives to preserve local communities' ability to reject data center projects near their homes. The resolution's pitch for a "Data Center Bill of Rights" follows several state-level attempts to block or pause data center projects, including a one-year data center moratorium in New York.

The idea behind Khanna's resolution is to protect people's ability to regulate data center development, "without being preempted or overruled by the State," the measure says. Communities should ideally be able to reject any data center project through a "transparent community process" and have the option to ban data center projects in residential areas and "within 2,500 feet of homes, schools, childcare facilities, hospitals or nursing homes." The measure also says communities should have the option to demand transparency from data center providers, block changes to their electricity rates and require data centers to use clean energy.

The resolution is essentially an outline of a bill rather than a law that can be passed now, but it does highlight several concerns that make regulation worth pursuing. Those include the harmful pollution produced by the generators and turbines that power data centers and the up to 32 billion gallons of water AI data centers could consume each year by 2028.