Erin Brockovich, famed for her role in the landmark 1996 class-action lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) that resulted in a $333 million settlement, and the subsequent movie that bears her name, is on another crusade. This time, the environmental activist and consumer advocate is targeting data centers, launching the Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting website to compile complaints from affected residents and community members.
"The RACE to build AI infrastructures is unfolding town by town across America. In some places, data centers are welcomed. In others, they are delayed, contested or abandoned altogether,” Brockovich wrote on her website. “This MAP captures the real-world footprint of that race — revealing patterns of growth, conflict and uncertainty.” At the moment, the website lists 33 operational (built & running) AI data centers, 44 under-construction projects, and 27 proposed sites. It also shows 2,716 community-reported locations nationwide as of May 24, 2026.
There are several primary concerns against data centers, the biggest of which is energy consumption, which has been causing utility prices to skyrocket across large swaths of the United States. Water usage is also another issue that communities have been raising, with these massive-scale projects using a lot of water and catching the attention of lawmakers. There are also reports of noise pollution, with some members of the public complaining about the infrasound phenomenon often brought about by large-scale industrial operations. Brockovich also lists location risks, scalability, and e-waste as potential long-term problems that the industry must deal with in the future.
While the White House has been pushing for AI-friendly policies, the rest of the American people are increasingly growing skeptical about its development, particularly for data centers that are popping up in their backyards. It has gotten to the point that 70% of Americans oppose data center construction near their homes, a 23% increase from a survey conducted less than six months before. The pushback against these developments is gaining steam, too, with at least 69 jurisdictions passing moratoriums on data center construction to give local governments time to assess their impact.
It’s unclear what Brockovich intends to do with the data she’s gathering, but this is often one of the first steps needed for lawyers to see if a class-action lawsuit has merit. While there is no case at the moment, this website puts data center developers on notice that their actions are being publicly tracked, and that Erin Brockovich has her keen eye on them.
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