We need an AI Plan that protects people and the planet, not a plan that accelerates extraction
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Today, the Trump Administration released an AI plan that would fast-track industry growth by rapidly expanding data centers, many of them in already climate-vulnerable environmental justice regions and creating exponential demand for dirty and dangerous energy. This plan is not about innovation for the public good. It’s about deepening the grip of Big Tech and Big Oil on our economy, environment, and democracy. A People’s AI Action plan, one that delivers on public well-being, shared prosperity, a sustainable future, and security for all is what’s in order.
The Administration’s plan “to win the AI race” eliminates the few existing protections and guardrails that exist to regulate AI. It gives corporations even more leeway, despite having seen the application of AI in surveillance, consumer price gouging, and the creation and spreading of misinformation and disinformation.
Deepening entrenchment in fossil fuels is not progress. It is privatization of the public future. The unrestrained and unaccountable development of AI, integrated into every aspect of society will drain and pollute our water, air, and land, and structure the economy at the expense of already struggling families and underpaid workers. Massive data centers needed to power AI, which operate with little transparency, place enormous strain on already-fragile infrastructure — reviving the coal industry and expanding natural gas, draining public water in drought-stricken regions, destabilizing power grids, and driving up utility costs and housing prices for working people. The plan also opens up the development of public lands for data centers and new fossil fuel projects, when we need to end dependency on fossil fuels.
Among other harmful provisions, the plan:
- Further reduces the power of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and reduces permitting requirements to fast-track data centers despite their dangers and harms to communities
- Opens federal lands to data center and fossil fuel projects and paves the way for nuclear energy
- Promotes military and surveillance use of AI
“Training an AI model can emit almost 5 times the lifetime emissions of the average American car. When heatwaves, storms and flooding, and wildfires are raging across the country, we should do everything we can to end our reliance on fossil fuels and protect people, not develop technologies that aggressively exacerbate the climate crisis and dig us deeper into the hole of fossil fuel extraction,” said Dwaign Tyndal, Executive Director of Alternatives for Community and Environment “We must question, do we really need every possible commercialized application of AI at the expense of our lives and our future generations?”
“This US AI Action Plan doesn’t just open the door for Big Tech and Big Oil to team up, it unhinges and removes any and all doors—it opens the floodgates, continuing to kneecap our communities’ rights to protect ourselves,” said KD Chavez, Executive Director of Climate Justice Alliance “With tech and oil’s track records on human rights and their role in the climate crisis, and what they are already doing now to force AI dominance, we need more corporate and environmental oversight, not less.”
“When developers look to site industrial facilities — whether it’s a power plant, an incinerator, or now, an AI data center — they target communities where Black and Brown people live, places with little political power and towns desperate for revenue,” said Sharon Lewis, Executive Director of the Connecticut Coalition for Economic and Environmental Justice. “We call them sacrifice zones because that’s exactly what happens — people sacrifice their health, their well-being, and too often, their future, so that others can benefit. We’re told these data centers are harmless, but even though they might seem like they pose no risk, in reality, these energy-hungry, pollution-intensive facilities are just as damaging to our environment and health.”
Unchecked AI development fueled by tax incentives and profits will only pollute our water, air, and land, with deadly consequences on everyday communities. Climate Justice Alliance supports a People’s AI Action plan that is community-led, transparent, and fossil-free. Right now, we need clean supply chains that prioritize the health and safety of communities and minimize harmful environmental impacts, democratic processes of decision-making including adequate reporting, testing, and permitting, and a complete decoupling from fossil fuel energy and scams that offset energy emission claims.
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