A fierce dispute over a major AI data center proposed in the Bay Area has spilled onto the national stage, after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez publicly threw her support behind a teenage activist leading the push to stop the project.
The planned 76-acre data center campus in Pittsburg, an East Bay suburb, has triggered a local uprising from residents who argue the facility would drain critical resources, emit diesel exhaust and bring constant noise to a community they describe as quiet. The fight over the AVAIO Perseus Data Center now comes as opposition to large-scale data centers is gaining momentum across the country — and as Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent democratic socialist and outspoken critic of such projects, enters the debate.
Roughly 400 opponents, among them teenage activist Sadie Cisneros, crowded into a public meeting this week in a last-ditch attempt to derail the controversial development.
Cisneros, who is of high school age, saw her testimony explode online, with one video clip drawing 9 million views and more than 15,000 comments.
“Data centers not only guzzle huge amounts of energy but they also are creating heat islands, warming up the land around them by up to 16 degrees Farenheit,” Cisneros claimed during a recent Pittsburg City Council hearing, while also pointing to reports of tinnitus and other health concerns associated with data centers.
Ocasio-Cortez, who has also criticized data center expansion, weighed in on Instagram.
“Thank YOU for being an example and showing that we ALL can speak up, make a difference, and carry on with our day,” the Bronx congresswoman wrote in a comment that received 20,000 “likes.”
“This is real influence! And it DOES have an impact,” she added.
Ocasio-Cortez has called for a national moratorium on data center construction alongside widespread doubts about the sites cropping up nationwide. Data center supporters, however, have labeled crackdowns like a temporary ban imposed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul a “panic” that will help America’s adversaries.
The Pittsburg city council voted 5-0 in favor of the project in 2024, arguing the development will create jobs and help the town’s bottom line.
The massive project is slated to be built on a former municipal golf course that was closed in 2018, near a residential development and schools.
The tech campus, from the company Avaio Digital, will have a 99 megawatt capacity to start and has been hailed as a “major investment in our local economy” by Pittsburg Mayor Juan Antonio Banales.
But locals who worry their lives could be upended by construction, noise and environmental impacts say they will continue fighting the project.
“Horrible. Horrible. I, gosh, should we move? You know, we’re really considering moving,” said Carmen Magallan, who lives across the street from the data center site, according to CBS News.
“This is a neighborhood. There’s so many homes around here. How can you just plop it right down there?” she said.
Pittsburg officials have scheduled a “community engagement workshop” about the project for July 30, opting to hold a Zoom meeting instead of an in-person hearing.
