LCV and NRDC Action Fund Launch $250K Ad on Climate Impacts of Dirty Data Centers

Washington, D.C.– Today, the League of Conservation Voters and the NRDC Action Fund launched a new digital ad highlighting the climate impacts of data centers fueled by coal, oil and gas, emphasizing the toll on generations to come. The ad will air in the Washington, D.C. area on streaming platforms, YouTube and social platforms for the next four weeks. 

WATCH: Grandkids
Script below

The ad focuses on how despite countless reports outlining the role the fossil fuel industry has played in perpetuating the climate crisis, Big Tech and Big Oil are working together to develop data centers powered by coal, oil, and gas. According to recent reports, these dirty data center projects are posed to increase U.S. power sector climate pollution by as much as 30%.

“The public needs to know that Big Oil and Big Tech are teaming up to put the health and safety of our families and communities at risk,” said Sara Chieffo, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, League of Conservation Voters. “Dirty data centers powered by expensive and polluting gas are a bad deal for communities, consumers and our climate. Communities are fed up with backroom deals, dirty air and water, corruption and powerful CEOs lining their own pockets. We need enforceable data center guardrails for environmental and public health protections, meaningful community input, benefits for communities hosting these facilities, and Big Tech to pay for the clean and reliable grid and water infrastructure upgrades that we all depend upon.”

These ads come as the rise of data centers is expanding costly dirty energy, despite cheaper, cleaner renewables like wind and solar being available to slow the climate crisis and lower costs. Dirty data centers pose a serious threat to the health and safety of our families, communities and future generations. Approximately four million people already live within one mile of an EPA-regulated data center, exposing them to elevated levels of diesel exhaust and other pollutants. Planned data centers are projected to drive $5.7 billion to $9.2 billion in annual public health costs from air pollution, cause 190,000 to 300,000 asthma symptom cases, and cause between 370 and 595 premature deaths each year.

“Data centers are deeply unpopular with the American people because they consume enormous resources at the expense of the communities that surround them,” said Jed Ober, managing director for political affairs at the NRDC Action Fund. “But the pollution they emit won’t just impact families who live near them. Dirty fuel-powered data centers will contribute massively to U.S. climate emissions and erase years of progress in the fight to stabilize our climate.” 

For more information about the impacts dirty data centers will have on our environment, health, and economy check out https://www.lcv.org/dirtydatacenters/. 

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WATCH: Grandkids

It’s already hard to explain the climate crisis to our grandkids

Now we will have to tell them that as the crisis became undeniable 

Big Tech and Big Oil teamed up to build data centers powered by dirty energy

Power hungry facilities that could increase climate pollution by up to 30% in the power sector

They’ll ask why?

And we’ll tell them it was to make oil and tech CEOs richer at our expense

It doesn’t have to be this way

We can fight back against dirty data centers

For us and for them