Data Center Resource Consumption, Policy Priorities, and Regulatory Intervention

• Pages: 29-38
• Date: 01 March 2026
• Published date: 01 March 2026
• Author: Owen Curtin
• Subject Matter: Administrative & Public Law

MAR/APR 2026 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 56 ELR 10113

DATA CENTER RESOURCE

CONSUMPTION, POLICY PRIORITIES,

AND REGULATORY INTERVENTION

by Owen Curtin

Owen Curtin is a 2026 B.A. candidate at Yale University and a

Clean Energy Analyst at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment.

e perennial question is whet her data infras truc-

ture—the ec onomies they support and the capita l they

generate—wil l materially benet loca l people in any

equitable way, especially bala nced against v isible dam-

ages to the environment.

—Patrick Brodie, 20231

Beverly Morris, a retired woman living outside Atlanta,

Georgia, carries a bucket of water to the bathroom. e

water pressure in her home is too low for the toilet to ush

on its own. She lls the bucket from a ve-gallon jug in

her kitchen, skeptical of what ows from her own pipes.2

Morris did not used to live this way. Back in 2016, when

she bought the house, the pipes worked and water quality

never crossed her mind. at was before Meta built a data

center about 400 yards from her home. After the construc-

tion, Morris noticed the well feeding her house did not

provide the same pressure. She also feared it was contam i-

nated (though Meta tested the water quality and reported

nothing abnormal).3

Some 600 miles north, in Loudoun County, Virginia—

the most concentrated hub of data center development in

the world4—t here are reports that the level of groundwater

pumping is unsustainable and increasing.5 Roughly 2,000

miles southwest in Tucson, Arizona, residents voted down

a resolution to sell land for development of a data center

earlier last year.6 Conc erns over depleted groundwater and

higher energy prices were the main drivers of the vote.

1. Patrick Brodie, Data Infrastructure Studies on an Unequal Planet, 10 B

D  S’ 20539517231182402 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1177/

20539517231182402.

2. Michelle Fleury & Nathalie Jimenez, “I Can’t Drink the Water”—Life Next

to a U.S. Data Centre, BBC N (July 10, 2025), https://www.bbc.com/

news/articles/cy8gy7lv448o.

3. Id.

4. Dakin Campbell et al., Satellite Images Show How Data Centers Are Chang-

ing America’s Landscape, B. I (Oct. 17, 2025), https://www.

businessinsider.com/satellite-images-show-how-data-centers-changing-

american-landscape.

5. Norman K. Styer, Loudoun Groundwater Study Raises Concerns About Long-

Term Sustainability, LN (Oct. 7, 2025), https://www.loudoun-

now.com/news/loudoun-groundwater-study-raises-concerns-about-long-

term-sustainability/article_10638d19-8f5e-4c33-a316-e40ce5314d63.

html.

6. J.D. Wallace, Tucson City Council Votes to End Project Blue, KOLD (Aug. 6,

2025), https://www.kold.com/2025/08/06/city-council-votes-end-project-

blue/.

As articial intelligence (AI) attracts unprecedented

investment—with projections suggesting AI infrastruc-

ture spending could reach $1 trillion globally7 by 2027—

data centers have become the physical scaolding of the

digital economy. ese warehouse-like facilities, packed

with computers that support everything from cloud stor-

age to generative AI models, are extraordinarily resource-

intensive. A single large data center can consume a s much

electricity as a small city and use millions of gallons of

water daily.8

e promises of tax revenue, jobs, and technological

prestige make data centers attr active to local governments.9

For many municipalities, the promise of consistent tax

revenue from an industry with little overt pollution is an

attractive prospect.10 Partnerships with data centers ideally

lower overall tax burdens on residents while ensuring the

reliability of digital services.

However, data centers can inadvertently drive up elec-

tricity prices for residential ratepayers as utilities build new

generation capacity to meet demand.11 ey can st rain

aging electrical grids designed for dierent use patterns.12

Data centers also compete with residential users a nd agri-

culture for nite water resources, part icularly in water-

stressed regions. Meanwhile, operators of these facilities

7. Bhargs Srivathsan et al., AI Power: Expanding Data Center Capacity to

Meet Growing Demand, MK  C. (Oct. 29, 2024), https://www.

mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-

insights.

8. Nuoa Lei et al., e Water Use of Data Center Workloads: A Review

and Assessment of Key Determinants, 219 R., C  R-

 108310 (2025), https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/

S0921344925001892; Miguel YañezBarnuevo, Data Center Energy Needs

Could Upend Power Grids and reaten the Climate, E’  E S

I. (Apr. 15, 2025), https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-center-ener-

gy-needs-are-upending-power-grids-and-threatening-the-climate.

9. Campbell et al., supra note 4.

10. Chloe Wiegand, Sustainable Data Centers for Smart City Development

(May 2025) (B.S. thesis, Univ. of Arizona), https://repository.arizona.edu/

handle/10150/677693.

11. Eliza Martin & Ari Peskoe, Extracting Prots From the Public: How

Utility Ratepayers Are Paying for Big Tech’s Power, H. E’  E-

 L. P (2025), https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/

uploads/2025/03/Harvard-ELI-Extracting-Prots-from-the-Public.pdf;

Rachel Reed, How Data Centers May Lead to Higher Electric-

ity Bills. H. L. T (Sept. 3, 2025), https://hls.harvard.edu/today/

how-data-centers-may-lead-to-higher-electricity-bills/.

12. Lei et al., supra note 8.

Copyright © 2026 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, https://www.eli.org