Howell Township Council enacts ban on data centers

The Howell Township Council in New Jersey unanimously voted to adopt an ordinance that bans the construction of data centers within its city limits. This decision, made toward the end of a recent meeting, was driven by concerns over the high energy and water consumption of these facilities, particularly large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, and their potential impact on residents' quality of life.

Councilman Mike Wrubel emphasized that the primary intent was to ban "AI hyper-scale data centers" due to their massive footprint, often exceeding a million square feet and requiring over 100 megawatts of power. However, due to the rapidly evolving specifications of data centers, the ordinance broadly prohibits all types, serving as a "stop gap" that may be amended later in the year to differentiate between various data center types.

The broader context of data center impacts was also discussed, with Christine Guhl-Sudovy, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, testifying at a joint legislative meeting about the increasing strain on the electric grid caused by data centers. She noted that data centers account for 30 of the 32 gigawatts of electricity needed in coming years across the 13-state grid serving New Jersey, impacting residents even if facilities are located elsewhere. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates data centers consume 10 to 50 times more electricity than commercial buildings of similar size. Concerns regarding data center development have also been expressed by residents in nearby Manchester Township.