Rep. Ro Khanna calls for ‘Data Center Bill of Rights’ and says the industry needs regulation

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., called for a “Data Center Bill of Rights,” arguing in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that data centers needed to be regulated so local communities have a larger say on where to build them.

Earlier this month, Khanna introduced a Data Center Bill of Rights resolution laying out a series of suggested guardrails on data centers, which have become a prominent issue in elections across the country.

Asked by moderator Kristen Welker whether the U.S. could lead the world in artificial intelligence if it opposes data center infrastructure, Khanna argued that “you can’t shove a data center down the throats of a local community without any say that that community has.”

“You can’t be jacking up electricity prices,” he said. “Even the technology leaders understand that there needs to be a pause so that we can get this right.”

Asked to clarify that he was not opposed to data centers but believes they need to be regulated, Khanna said, “I believe it needs regulation.”

“I introduced a Data Center Bill of Rights, saying it should never be in a residential community or farmland, and a local community should have the say of whether to do it,” he said.

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Khanna’s resolution would affirm that communities can ban data centers in residential areas, reject increases in electric bills and require data centers to use clean energy, among other provisions.

Data centers have cropped up across the country to support the rise in artificial intelligence, but the centers have created controversy in local communities, where residents have raised concerns over the centers’ water and energy consumption, noise and air pollution.

Now, candidates have had to grapple with data centers as an electoral issue. A March Gallup survey found that 71% of Americans somewhat or strongly opposed local construction of AI data centers.