Philadelphia residents rally against potential AI data centres

More than 100 Philadelphia residents and environmental activists rallied at City Hall on Monday to launch the No Data Centers in Philly campaign and call for a moratorium on potential AI data centre construction.

Philly Thrive is helping lead the campaign, which is opposing possible sites identified by city officials in Northeast Philadelphia and Grays Ferry. No formal construction proposal has been made for either location.

Protesters cited concerns about pollution, noise, surveillance, employment, and the use of electricity and water. The campaign is particularly focused on Grays Ferry, near the former Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery, which shut after a 2019 explosion after processing up to 335,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

TechCrunch reported that activists view the refinery’s industrial legacy as central to their opposition. Clean Air Council attorney Annie Fox also warned at the rally that planned Pennsylvania data centres could rely on hundreds of diesel engines during periods when the electricity grid is under pressure.

The protest forms part of a wider US debate over the economic benefits and environmental demands of data centres. BloombergNEF projects that US data centres could consume more natural gas than Germany and Japan combined by 2035. New York has temporarily halted approval of permits for large projects, while moratoriums have also been approved in Denver, Indianapolis, Asheville, Charlotte and Reno.