What You Need to Know About AI Data Centers — And Why Earthjustice Is Fighting Back

Across the United States, a reckless buildout of artificial intelligence data centers is underway — and communities are paying the price with their health, their water, and their electricity bills. A landmark explainer from Earthjustice, published April 29, 2026, lays out precisely what is at stake and what legal advocates are doing to stop it.

The bottom line: American households should not foot the bill for the tech industry's speculative AI buildout. And yet, right now, that is exactly what is happening.

What Makes AI Data Centers Different

Data centers have existed for decades, but the current generation being built for AI tools is categorically different in scale and impact. These are not server rooms in office parks. They are enormous industrial complexes running 24 hours a day, consuming energy equivalent to an entire city.

• Today, 90% of existing data centers consume fewer than 50 megawatts
• The new generation of AI data centers includes proposals for complexes demanding 1,000 to 4,000 megawatts — one to four gigawatts — of electricity
• The largest facilities being constructed today can sprawl over 2,000 acres

In Homer City, Pennsylvania, developers are seeking permits to build what would be the largest methane gas plant in the United States — a 4.5 GW facility — solely to serve data centers. In Indiana, a utility wants to build a 2.3 GW gas plant on the site of a former coal plant. In Louisiana, Meta broke ground on its largest data center yet, to be powered by three methane gas plants producing 2 GW of electricity combined.

The Environmental Toll

The environmental impacts of this unchecked expansion are severe and cascading:

• Water depletion: AI data centers consume one to five million gallons of water per day for cooling. Earthjustice represents communities concerned about water depletion in Florida, Colorado, and Indiana.
• Air pollution: Most data centers rely on dirty diesel generators for backup power, emitting nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and carbon monoxide.
• Fossil fuel lock-in: The projected energy demand threatens to keep coal and gas plants online for decades, directly undermining the transition to clean energy.
• Noise and community blight: Industrial-scale cooling systems operate 24/7, degrading quality of life for residents near these facilities.

Who Is Paying for This?

The financial burden is being quietly transferred to ordinary Americans. Data center companies negotiate secretive contracts with utilities — often backed by non-disclosure agreements that even local elected officials are forced to sign. Meanwhile:

• In the PJM electricity market — the largest in the country — data centers caused wholesale electricity costs to increase by $7.3 billion in a recent capacity auction
• Data centers were responsible for an additional $4.4 billion in transmission projects in 2024 alone, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists
• Earthjustice attorneys are actively contesting proposed consumer rate hikes driven by data centers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida

Key Legal Fights in Progress

Earthjustice is not watching from the sidelines. Their attorneys are in courtrooms and regulatory hearings fighting on multiple fronts:

• xAI / Elon Musk: The NAACP and Earthjustice are suing xAI over air pollution from an unpermitted power plant built for an AI data center in Memphis, Tennessee — a facility running on diesel generators in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
• Congress: Earthjustice successfully stopped a congressional bill that would have exempted data centers from key environmental protections.
• Louisiana / Meta: Earthjustice filed motions to force Meta to disclose its electricity use and the true cost of the gas plants being built on its behalf.
• Homer City, PA: Environmental advocates are calling on regulators to reject a proposed 4.5 GW methane gas plant — the largest in U.S. history — intended solely for AI data center power.

The Trump Administration's Role

The current federal administration is using the AI buildout as cover to accelerate fossil fuel expansion — stopping coal power plants from retiring on schedule, fast-tracking methane gas plant construction, and weakening health and environmental regulations. This is not an energy policy. It is a transfer of public wealth to some of the richest corporations in history, paid for by communities who never consented.

What Needs to Happen

Earthjustice and allied advocates are demanding:

• Data centers must be powered by clean energy, not new fossil fuel plants
• Tech companies must pay their own way — no cost-shifting to household ratepayers
• Full public disclosure of energy contracts, water consumption, and community impacts
• Strong state and federal environmental review before permits are granted

This fight is not abstract. It is happening in your state, on your power grid, and on your electricity bill. The Earthjustice team is in the trenches — and communities across the country are organizing alongside them.

Sources and Citations

• Earthjustice — What You Need to Know About AI Data Centers, Kathryn McGrath, April 29, 2026
• Earthjustice — NAACP & Earthjustice Sue xAI
• Earthjustice — Stopping the Data Center Bill
• Alliance for the Great Lakes — Data Center Water Use Report, August 2025
• PJM Independent Market Monitor — 2026/2027 Base Residual Auction Analysis
• Union of Concerned Scientists — PJM Data Center Issue Brief, September 2025
• Earthjustice — Homer City Gas Plant Press Release
• Cleanview — U.S. Data Center Map (April 2026)