{"slug": "erin-brockovich-made-a-map-to-track-data-centers-around-the-country", "title": "Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country", "summary": "Environmental activist Erin Brockovich launched a public map tracking data center development across the United States, documenting 33 operational sites, 44 under construction, and 27 proposed facilities. The map, which has already collected over 2,700 community reports, aims to reveal patterns of growth and conflict as the race to build AI infrastructure accelerates nationwide.", "body_md": "Erin Brockovich, the environmental activist whose name and work you may recognize from the Oscar-winning movie [ Erin Brockovich](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195685/), has created a\n\n“The RACE to build AI infrastructures is unfolding town by town across America. In some places, data centers are welcomed,” Brockovich writes on the site (emphasis hers). “In others, they are delayed, contested or abandoned altogether. This MAP captures the real-world footprint of that race — revealing patterns of growth, conflict and uncertainty.”\n\nAs data center demand continues to grow rapidly, so are concerns about their impacts; in March, Andrew and I [wrote about](https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/03/as-ai-data-centers-scale-investigating-their-impact-becomes-its-own-beat/) how investigating data centers is quickly becoming its own beat. As of publication, Brockovich’s map — similar to a [map published by Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/data-center-locations-us-map-ai-boom-2025-9), whom Andrew and I talked to for our story — shows the locations of 33 operational data centers, with 44 under construction and 27 proposed. There are also 2,716 community reports so far, and undoubtedly more will follow.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/erin-brockovich-made-a-map-to-track-data-centers-around-the-country", "canonical_source": "https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/05/erin-brockovich-made-a-map-to-track-data-centers-around-the-country/", "published_at": "2026-05-27 00:36:03+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-27 01:23:27.786177+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-infrastructure", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Erin Brockovich", "Business Insider"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/erin-brockovich-made-a-map-to-track-data-centers-around-the-country", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/erin-brockovich-made-a-map-to-track-data-centers-around-the-country.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/erin-brockovich-made-a-map-to-track-data-centers-around-the-country.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/erin-brockovich-made-a-map-to-track-data-centers-around-the-country.jsonld"}}