One of the top civil rights organizations in the US is putting the tech industry “on alert,” issuing a call to action for communities to demand more accountability from companies building new data centers.
Electricity demand is rising in the US for the first time in nearly two decades, thanks in large part to massive new data centers that are being built to support advancements in AI. Utilities and some tech companies are increasingly meeting that demand with fossil fuels that worsen air quality and exacerbate the climate crisis — prompting the NAACP to issue “guiding principles” to help local community members to fight back.
“No community should be forced to sacrifice clean air, clean water, or safe homes so that corporations and billionaires can build energy-hungry facilities,” the group said in guiding principles that it shared exclusively with The Verge.
“No community should be forced to sacrifice clean air, clean water, or safe homes”
The NAACP is already in this fight, challenging Elon Musk’s xAI data center in Memphis, Tennessee. Now, it’s also rallying others across the US to take a stand with the release of a “unifying guide” for groups opposing new data centers and fossil fuel infrastructure. It’s a warning to the tech industry to expect more resistance, and potentially legal action, if it doesn’t heed locals’ concerns.
“It allows for tech companies to be on alert,” Abre’ Conner, director of the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at the NAACP, tells The Verge. “That if they do not meet our demands as it relates to the guiding principles, that if we move into other forms of advocacy including filing litigation, that there shouldn’t be any shock or question as to why we’re doing that.”
The framework calls for more transparency from companies building these data centers. Specifically, it says that they should disclose details on a facility’s water and energy consumption, emissions, subsidies, and corporate ownership as soon as they propose a new project. Companies should continue sharing this data with local communities after the data centers go into operation, the group demands.
Energy and water efficiency standards ought to be legally binding, along with any commitments that a company makes to mitigate the facility’s impact on a region. That can be accomplished through community benefit agreements struck between companies, community groups, and regulatory agencies, for example. The NAACP is already planning on developing templates for such agreements that advocates can use in the future, Conner says.
The document also calls for renewable energy as large data centers “are deepening reliance on fossil fuels and straining fragile energy grids.” Indeed, data centers are driving a boom in new gas pipelines and power plants in the southeastern US, according to a recent report. And burning more gas means creating more pollution.
The xAI data center in Memphis is a test case for the NAACP’s ability to wrest concessions from big tech companies. Peak nitrogen dioxide concentration levels have jumped by 79 percent in the area surrounding the data center since it started operating in 2024, according to research from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville requested by Time magazine. Local utility officials reportedly signed NDAs surrounding the project.
The xAI data center in Memphis is a test case
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) fired off a letter to xAI on behalf of the NAACP in June, threatening to sue the company for alleged violations against the Clean Air Act. Aerial imagery obtained by the SELC showed 35 gas turbines that xAI installed at the site, which the NAACP and local environmental groups allege were running without a proper permit. In July, the Shelby County Health Department ended up granting xAI a permit to run 15 gas turbines. Soon after, the SELC filed an appeal with the Memphis and Shelby County Air Pollution Control Board challenging the Health Department’s decision.
Neither xAI nor the Shelby County Health Department responded immediately to inquiries from The Verge. Conner declined to speak to “the specifics of any conversations that may be happening” with xAI because of ongoing litigation — but the NAACP has yet to formally file suit since giving the mandatory 60-day notice in June. “I can say that at this point, we’re hopeful that one way or another, we will ensure that the communities best interests and needs are taken into consideration, whether that means moving forward with the lawsuit or whether that means finding another solution,” Conner tells The Verge. xAI is developing a second and even larger data center location near its first one in Memphis.
The data center neighbors predominantly Black communities including Boxtown, which faces cancer risks that are four times higher than the national average. The first data center’s gas turbines add to existing pollution in the area from other industrial facilities, including a nearby gas plant, according to the NAACP.
Many of the points in the guiding principles that the NAACP shared deal with ensuring that the communities most impacted by this kind of infrastructure and pollution are involved in decision-making and leading solutions.
The NAACP didn’t create the framework on its own; nearly a dozen other groups contributed, including Memphis Community Against Pollution and the nationwide Climate Justice Alliance. They held a two-day meeting in Memphis in late August to craft the principles together — echoing the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held in 1991, in which delegates formed 17 “principles of environmental justice.”
“We had the convening in Memphis to show unity with the community there,” Conner says. “These places that have been sacrifice zones for so long, we’re no longer going to stand by and allow for a new emergence of industry to come into these same communities and add more pollution.”
Read the entire framework below:
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