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Many Florida residents are up in arms over the rapid expansion of data centers. Suncoast Sierra Club has shared something of a coping mechanism.
The group released its Florida citizen action toolkit at a public meeting on Aug. 13, for residents hoping to work with local governments to combat large-scale AI data center proposals.
The toolkit is a Google Doc that includes a wealth of information, teaching people the risks and impacts data centers may pose to the environment. Organized into easy-to-read sections, the toolkit provides talking points for residents to share with politicians, call-to-action petitions and guides for navigating public meetings.
“The toolkit that we are rolling out today has been designed to give average Floridians in their communities the tools and the power to fight back against these very damaging proposals,” Sierra Club Florida Chapter Director Susannah Randolph told reporters during the meeting.
The toolkit cites a summer Gallup Poll that claims that 7 out of 10 Americans oppose constructing data centers in their local area.
Sierra Club recognizes the need for data centers in general but focuses on large-scale data centers due to the continuous technological advances of AI. Public officials, reps for the club argued, aren’t ready for the rapid arrival of such facilities.
“There also aren’t any regulations in place for them,” the club wrote in a press release. “As AI infrastructure expands, Floridians deserve clear, accurate information about these projects’ impacts, and a voice in the local decision-making that affects their communities.”
Tampa Electric told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that the responsibility is clear to them and that its goal is to protect existing customers first when it comes to large scale data centers.
“The toolkit raises many of the same questions we believe are important when considering large-energy users, particularly how existing customers are protected,” said Tampa Electric Media Spokesperson Cherie Jacobs. “We will not connect a new large-energy user unless we can continue providing safe, reliable electric service; and other customers will not bear the costs of serving these projects.”
Environmentalists from across the nation have raised concerns as hyperscale data centers pop up, often occupying thousands of acres.
Developments like Texas’ 5,236-acre Project Matador, Alabama’s proposed 1,600-acre Project Marvel, and Meta’s 2,250 acre Hyperion Campus in Louisiana pose significant threats to the environment, activists say, pointing to the large amount of resources required to run such facilities.
“Large data centers can consume up to five million gallons [of water] per day,” said one slide in the Sierra Club presentation to the media.
Under Senate Bill 484 passed last May, the bill requires stricter regulations when using water to cool large scale data centers to ensure water resources are used in the public interest.
“Florida law includes specific water-use and permitting requirements for large-scale data centers, including additional requirements for projects seeking significant water allocations,” said Jacobs. “Tampa Electric will continue to focus on ensuring that any large-energy user can be served safely and reliably while protecting existing customers from the costs associated with serving new projects.”
Some of these regulations include using reclaimed water for large scale data centers as well as not issuing a permit to large load customers to use local water resources if it’s deemed harmful to the resources in that area. Under SB484 the governing bodies may not approve a permit application to a large scale data center without a hearing.
WUSF reports that over the summer, residents from Polk County’s Fort Meade sued the city over its unanimous approval of a 1,300-acre data center.
The average high school football field is about one acre without the endzones.
The Sierra Club’s toolkit also calls for a statewide moratorium to stall development on these data centers. So far, Florida has moratoriums in over a dozen counties.
On Aug. 5, Hillsborough County commissioners voted unanimously 7-0 to draft an AI data center moratorium that would extend to Oct. 7, 2027.
“We’re calling for there to be more moratoriums, and that for us is very much like pressing the pause button on this development that we’re seeing in a lot of other states,” Sierra Club Organizing Manager Brooke Alexander Goss said.
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This article appears in Sept. 24 – 30, 2026.
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