Companies backing data center construction are flooding Sacramento with cash, hoping to stop or defang seven bills that would regulate the facilities as they head toward approval in the California Legislature this week.<\/p>\n
The pro-data-center spenders include Big Tech companies like Amazon and AI titan Anthropic. But they are led, dollar-wise, by old school utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric, which earlier this year clocked its second biggest lobbying quarter since 1999.<\/p>\n
Britt Smith, who is part of a community group organizing against a controversial $2 billion Amazon data center project in Gilroy, said corporate opponents of the bills are \u201cspending so much because there\u2019s so much at stake,\u201d adding, \u201cOur future, our safety, is not for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lobbyists\u2019 financial push comes a year after four bills that attempted to regulate data centers<\/a> died or were diluted after lobbying from the industry. But as artificial intelligence fuels an unprecedented facility buildout, public backlash is transforming data center construction into a major issue for candidates in upcoming elections.<\/p>\n A May Gallup poll<\/a> found seven in 10 Americans oppose data center construction in their communities, while a Public Policy Institute of California poll in July found similar opposition statewide. Rising public anxiety over utility costs, water use and strain on the electricity grid has driven California lawmakers to propose strict new data center rules \u2014 igniting a high-stakes lobbying push by the industry.<\/p>\n Hundreds of cities have considered or passed project bans this year, including in Monterey Park, where voters passed a ballot measure to permanently ban data centers, and Bay Area cities like Pittsburg, which backtracked on approvals following public outcry.<\/p>\n State law requires businesses and groups that engage in lobbying to report their overall quarterly spending, but does not require a breakdown of exactly how much is being spent on each bill. An analysis by CalMatters of lobbying activity for the first six months of 2026 found that utilities, tech companies and their proxies have spent millions of dollars lobbying state lawmakers, with data center bills emerging as a primary focus.<\/p>\n By Monday, it will be clear which bills made it out of the Legislature and onto Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s desk for signature or veto by the end of September.<\/p>\n The fate of the measures could have far-reaching consequences, affecting not only data center development but environmental regulation, utility rates, and how freely California\u2019s tech giants can operate in the state. Nationally, advocates and lawmakers agree that California\u2019s regulation around data centers could be an important bellwether for how similar fights will play out elsewhere.<\/p>\n \u201cThe level of awareness is through the roof, and the level of concern and sensitivity is through the roof \u2014 it\u2019s bipartisan, it\u2019s national, and it\u2019s across the board,\u201d California Sen. Steve Padilla, a Democrat from Chula Vista who is author of two pending data center bills, told CalMatters.<\/p>\n Who is lobbying for data centers<\/p>\n During the first half of 2026, Amazon paid more than $500,000 to lobby lawmakers on 33 pieces of legislation, including several data center bills and matters related to antitrust and artificial intelligence. Amazon spent more than $1.7 million lobbying in California last year.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, AI company Anthropic, which sent its first lobbyists to Sacramento last year, has spent nearly $90,000 to influence decisions made by the California Legislature so far this year and, according to the Financial Times<\/a>, nearly tripled its federal lobbying spend in the same time period. Last year, Anthropic spent over $200,000 lobbying in the state..<\/p>\n Although Anthropic paid a lobbyist to influence lawmakers decisionmaking on data centers, a spokesperson said the company does not support or oppose any specific bills in California. The company, the spokesperson said, is also interested in working with lawmakers \u201con AI safety and other relevant issues.\u201d Representatives for Amazon did not respond to a request for comment from CalMatters.<\/p>\n Utility giant PG&E\u2019s latest filing<\/a> shows that it spent $2.86 million lobbying in California between April and June \u2014 its second highest quarter since 1999 (only surpassed since then by 2018, the year of the deadliest wildfire in state history, later linked to its equipment). A spokesperson for PG&E said the company has engaged on a \u201cbroad scope\u201d of issues facing the industry during this legislative session, adding that \u201cless than 5% of our spending was on data-center related issues,\u201d amounting to approximately $143,000.<\/p>\n Other utilities, like Southern California Edison, and unions representing utility workers, like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, have also invested in lobbying efforts on the bills.<\/p>\n Utilities providers are particularly motivated to influence bills because the development of new data centers represents a historic opportunity for expansion and grid upgrades, according to Matthew Freedman, senior staff attorney for The Utility Reform Network. Under the current regulatory framework, he said, the cost of expanding transmission lines is spread across all grid users, which means everyday consumers foot the bill.<\/p>\n But several of this year\u2019s data center bills would change that, shifting costs back toward data center operators. \u201cThe groups that have been the strongest opponents of the bills this year include the proxies for the data centers and the tech companies,\u201d Freedman said, referring to industry groups such as the Data Center Coalition, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the California Chamber of Commerce. \u201cThey serve as a mouthpiece for the tech industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Filings do not show that tech giants like Google, OpenAI, Meta, and Microsoft are lobbying lawmakers directly on data centers this session. Instead, the business groups Freedman referenced, which represent the Big Tech firms, carry the weight.<\/p>\n Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which represents companies including Apple and Amazon, has so far spent over $100,000 lobbying on bills including the various data center measures this year and is on track for its highest annual lobbying spend since tracking began in 2005.<\/p>\n The Data Center Coalition, which counts companies like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI among its members, has logged its second and third highest-ever spending quarters so far this year. It has spent roughly $60,000 lobbying state lawmakers and the governor\u2019s office to voice opposition to nearly every bill that would regulate data centers.<\/p>\n The bills and the backlash<\/p>\n The measures before the Legislature this session include:<\/p>\n Bills to shift electric infrastructure costs toward data center operators and away from residential customers. Business interests opposed to the bills argue they would stifle tech companies\u2019 ability to innovate and compete, tie up critical infrastructure in red tape and unfairly burden the construction of data centers versus the construction of other types of projects.<\/p>\n Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Ahmad Thomas told CalMatters that he sees public debate over data centers as fueled by \u201cstrong anti-AI sentiment,\u201d and that industry groups like his aim to \u201cground the conversation in reality\u201d about the ways consumers rely on data center infrastructure for everyday services.<\/p>\n Advocacy groups counter that transparency is vital to protect the environment and public resources, and that everyday consumers should not be affected by increased infrastructure and utilities costs.<\/p>\n This robust fight stands in stark contrast to last year, when the only bill signed into law was stripped down to just a requirement for state energy regulators to publish an environmental impact study on data centers\u2019 electricity demand. Newsom also vetoed a water usage disclosure bill, citing concerns that regulation could stifle AI growth.<\/p>\n Whether this year\u2019s intensified lobbying will yield similar results remains uncertain, but lawmakers say shifting voter sentiment heading into the midterms has altered the political landscape.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re looking down the barrel of public outcry that says we don\u2019t want [data centers] at all, and you\u2019ve got localities that are saying they\u2019re going to ban them, then you know the atmosphere has changed,\u201d Assemblymember Diane Papan, a San Mateo Democrat who authored two of the bills, told CalMatters. \u201cWe are in a totally different environment this year.\u201d<\/p>\n In San Jose, Mayor Matt Mahan has staked a large part of his city\u2019s future<\/a> on the development of data centers. Last year, he announced a “historic\u201d agreement with PG&E<\/a>\u00a0 to deliver, via upgrades, more than 2,000 megawatts of energy to make San Jose the \u201cWest Coast\u2019s premier destination for data center development.\u201d<\/p>\n In June, the mayor presided at groundbreaking ceremonies in Alviso for a Microsoft data center in Alviso, and\u00a0 described data centers as \u201ccritical infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n The San Francisco Standard reported this week that since Mahan took office, San Jose has approved more than 1 million square feet in data center development and has 34 projects under review, which could double the city\u2019s data centers in the coming years.<\/p>\n The city this month began a series of community roundtables, continuing through September, to give residents an opportunity to share their priorities and inform the city\u2019s proposed data center framework.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Washington refuses to establish a uniform national standard, and Sacramento in turn has ceded the responsibility to localities, San Jos\u00e9 is stepping up to lead the charge \u2014 and asking residents to help define the path forward,\u201d Mahan said in an email newsletter. \u201cWe could bury our heads in the sand, say \u2018no\u2019 and push the jobs and industries of the future to states with fewer environmental safeguards, or we can do what California does best: lead the nation forward with a blueprint for responsible development.\u201d<\/p>\n Katherine Ortiz and Khari Johnson are reporters with CalMatters. San Jose Inside added information about San Jose to this report.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Companies backing data center construction are flooding Sacramento with cash, hoping to stop or defang seven bills that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[8436,2007,8487,19534,6856,2080,7046,7,1843,19628,176908,187,45865,6910,88,90,176909,89,2280],"class_list":["post-446579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-utilities","tag-ai","tag-amazon","tag-anthropic","tag-apple","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-big-tech","tag-california","tag-california-legislature","tag-data-centers","tag-electricity-grid","tag-gilroy","tag-lobbyists","tag-san-francisco-standard","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-inside","tag-san-jose-news","tag-silicon-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBills mandating disclosures or estimates of water usage (and sometimes usage of other resources).
\nSB 887, which would require all data center projects to undergo environmental reviews and offer fast-tracked approval for facilities that meet standards for water and energy conservation.<\/p>\n