Sacramento officials are looking into how a large data center could affect energy, water, infrastructure and neighborhoods as residents raise concerns about a possible project in the city.<\/p>\n
At Tuesday’s Sacramento City Council meeting, Mayor Kevin McCarty directed the city manager and staff to explore a policy addressing the potential impacts of a large data center.<\/p>\n
“There’s growing interest and curiosity and somewhat concerns about the issue across our country and locally about data centers,” McCarty said. “I want Sacramento to be prepared if and when a project comes our way, so I’m asking our city manager and our city staff to look into a policy that considers potential impacts on our communities \u2014 energy, water, infrastructure, neighborhoods \u2014 and what safeguards we may need if such a proposal is forwarded to the city of Sacramento for consideration.”<\/p>\n
The request came as some Sacramento residents raised concerns about the potential impacts of a large data center.<\/p>\n
David Wright, a Sacramento resident and member of the local climate justice organization 350 Sacramento<\/a>, said he is concerned about the effects such a facility could have.<\/p>\n “We know from other data centers around the country that they have sometimes very large impacts, not just in terms of carbon pollution, but also air pollution, water pollution, water use,” adding that the centers also produce a lot of noise and heat.<\/p>\n Wright also raised concerns about where data centers are built.<\/p>\n “A lot of times these facilities are going into lower-income areas,” Wright said, “So it’s less well-served communities that are taking the brunt of these impacts.”<\/p>\n Wright spoke at Tuesday’s council meeting, where residents also called for more transparency.<\/p>\n His comments came the same day PBS KVIE’s Abridged published a report<\/a> saying a public records request showed “one of the largest developers of data centers in the nation is eyeing an industrial area” somewhere in southeastern Sacramento “for a new data center.”<\/p>\n The report said Link Logistics, a warehouse real estate company and subsidiary of Blackstone Inc., has been discussing the project with SMUD since February.<\/p>\n SMUD told ABC10 it “can’t share project details due to customer privacy and confidentially. We’ve supported data centers for decades and are developing a large load policy<\/a> for customers 50 MW and above. Our process assigns infrastructure costs to large customers to protect existing customers from cost shifts.”<\/p>\n SMUD also said it “doesn’t make land-use decisions, but once projects are approved locally, we must provide power.”<\/p>\n A city spokesperson told ABC10, “We have received no applications for a data center to be built or any from that company.”<\/p>\n Across California, lawmakers passed several safeguards around data centers during this legislative session.<\/p>\n Four bills awaiting the governor’s signature would require data centers to report water and energy use and ensure that water or electricity infrastructure upgrades needed to accommodate a large data center are paid for by the builder rather than passed on to ratepayers. Those are AB 2383<\/a>, AB 2619<\/a>, AB 1577<\/a> and AB 2469<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the national level, Congress is considering a bill that would limit the data center industry’s access to tax incentives.<\/p>\n Political analysts say concerns about data centers have not found a partisan home, with people across the political spectrum asking for safeguards when it comes to building these facilities in their communities.<\/p>\n