Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready... Following major purchases in recent months by tech billionaires, Oakland is putting a on data center development in the city.
The Oakland City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a 45-day moratorium on building the controversial facilities, giving leaders more time to create a regulatory framework for appropriate uses that protect workers, the power grid and environmental resources.
As author of the legislation, Councilmember Carroll Fife said the moratorium is “prudent and critical” at the local level.
“Given advancements in technology, the City reasonably anticipates that absent this moratorium, applications for data centers will be submitted under existing regulations before the City can complete the necessary study and adopt regulations,” a policy analysis from Fife’s office states.
With the number of data centers growing nationally, so have concerns about the resources they generally require for operation.
In 2023, data centers used about 176 terawatt-hours of electricity, about 4% of total U.S. consumption that year, according to a 2024 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report. Data centers are expected to consume up to 12% of all available electricity in the country by 2028, the report stated.
Because data center servers require a cooling system, some of the larger facilities can use as much as 5 million gallons of water per day – equivalent to more than seven Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.
In response, hundreds of municipalities across the U.S. have announced moratoriums – sometimes even outright bans – on data centers until they can properly regulate them. In the Bay Area, Richmond and San Francisco each recently approved a on data center developments.
“It’s a real testament to the power of the people organizing and what we can achieve against these big tech companies,” said Adi Varshneya, an organizer for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, one of the key groups against data centers in Oakland. “Thousands have signed petitions, hundreds have been volunteering and sharing online with their community network.”
Oakland’s comes as major companies this summer announced plans to invest in the city, sparking public outcry for increased action at City Hall.
The Behring Company is seeking to create a 20,000-square-foot data center at the former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory supercomputer site at 415 20th St. Jeff Bezos’ artificial intelligence startup Prometheus leased a 100,000-square-foot space in West Oakland. Tesla leased a 40,000-square-foot facility in West Oakland for potential robotics and manufacturing work.
Many residents who spoke during public comment on Tuesday urged the council to go further than the moratorium.
“What we’d like to see is a ban on data centers,” said Quanah Parker Brightman, executive director of United Native Americans, an Indigenous civil right organization promoting decolonization. “We have an opportunity here today to start that process.”
Some residents, however, did not view data centers as a negative for the city.
Oakland resident Andrea Ingram said AI data centers are simply the next major innovation, much like electricity. She said the city should consider the tax revenue benefits the facilities could provide as Oakland faces a structural deficit exceeding $100 million.
“We need the data centers. We need every form of modern science and technology and industry that we can get” Ingram said. “Oakland is good at driving those things out of the city, and then we turn around and ask why we can’t give a raise to city workers.”