Data centers are proliferating across the United States during a time when there are a lack of laws, regulations, ordinances, and zoning protections to defend our communities from these hyperscale development proposals. Green Amendments offer a pathway of protection by creating a constitutional obligation on government officials to undertake a full and fair review of the environmental consequences of actions and decisions AND upholding your substantive right to clean, safe, and healthy environments. Every time a data center needs a special approval, change, or exception, it is an opportunity to raise your concerns and your constitutionally protected environmental rights.
How Can Green Amendments Help Communities Threatened by Hyperscale Data Centers?, a handout for generic application of Green Amendments to Data Center efforts
Download our new guide, Pennsylvania Green Amendment & Data Centers: How to Exercise Your Constitutional Environmental Rights, where we walk you through exactly how the PA Green Amendment can support your data center advocacy and provides tools to craft data center comments for your community efforts.
Webinar: Questions, Constitutional Rights, and Ordinances – Taking on Pennsylvania Data Centers
In PA, you have a constitutional right to clean air, pure water, a healthy environment, and the preservation of our natural resources for current and future generations. Maya K. van Rossum, Founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, will take you through what the Green Amendment is and how you can use it in your data center advocacy.
Not from PA? But facing a data center in your state? This webinar provides info that can be broadly applied, including helping you to understand how a well-crafted Green Amendment can make a difference.
Additional Resources
- Stop Bad Data Centers, Halt the Harm Website with Resources
- The Urgent Case Against Data Centers, Food & Water Watch Report
- DRN Data Center web page
- The People Say No: Resisting Data Centers in the South, Media Justice Resource
- The Costs of Data Centers To Our Communities, Media Justice Resource
- Food and Water Watch model data center ordinance
- AI Now Institute, Data Center organizing and policymaking guides
