Grant Gutierrez authors report on community opposition to AI data centers

Grant Gutierrez authored Community Opposition to AI Data Centers: Lessons Learned, a report for Climate Direct analyzing “46 canceled, stalled, or withdrawn AI data center projects across the US, combining quantitative demographic profiles with deep qualitative analysis of seven case studies.”

“Communities are worried - and rightly so - about what these major projects mean for their livelihoods, their local environments, our future generations,” Grant posted on LinkedIn. “The histrionic speed of this current logic of "build build build" does not give us, as a society, the right amount of time to think through the broader existential impacts of AI and what it means to build a just and resilient future.”

This report was motivated by two overarching questions: “What community concerns surround AI data center projects that have been canceled, stalled, or withdrawn?” and “What do the demographic and environmental profiles of those communities tell us about the broader conditions under which AI data center development is meeting resistance?”

Key takeaways:

• More than US$170 billion in announced AI data center capacity has been blocked, withdrawn, or stalled by community opposition since January 2024.
• Communities winning these fights represent average America, not wealthy white suburbs or typical EJ communities.
• Process and transparency is the dominant opposition argument. Non-disclosure agreements, hidden end users, and closed-door negotiations frame opposition narratives more consistently than any other concern.
• Responsible development decisions made in a project's pre-siting and site-selection phases will have the highest impact on advancing projects to operation.

The full report is available for download here.