Key Questions to Ask When Considering Data Centers in Your Community, the newest resource from the AAAS Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues (EPI Center), in partnership with the National League of Cities and the GovAI Coalition, empowers local leaders and communities to ask developers how new data centers will impact energy, water, air, and economics in the area. Vetted by technical experts for accuracy but written for local and state leaders and community members, this resource will help decision makers uncover the information needed to make evidence-informed decisions about data centers proposed in their communities.
This resource is publicly available to anyone who has questions about data centers.
The EPI Center is a non-partisan, non-advocacy project of AAAS with a mission to build trusted relationships between scientists and decisionmakers at all levels of government and to make it easier for policymakers to access and incorporate scientific evidence into their decision-making.
- fact sheets produced by the National League of Cities in partnership with the EPI Center about the fundamentals of data centers, their environmental impact, and city responses to data center growth;
- videos of experts discussing the economics, grid implications, and water use of data centers;
- independent resources produced by experts on topics such as regional economic analyses of data center growth, urban planning, energy use forecasts, the water-energy nexus of AI, and more.
Are data centers a concern in your community? If you're planning to use this new resource, how might it support your work or inform conversations in your community?
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Kate Stoll PhD
Denver CO
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