As San Jose eyes new data centers, residents push back on possible environmental impact

San Jose's initiative to support the rapid development of new data centers is encountering strong opposition from residents concerned about the environmental consequences and the burden on the city's power grid. A recent City Council meeting saw numerous residents voice their alarm over the plan to connect a dozen large energy users, including data centers, to the grid by 2030. Ellina Yin, who leads the nonprofit Dreaming Collaborative, organized a letter-writing campaign and a petition with over 800 signatures, criticizing the lack of meaningful community engagement despite the city's aggressive push for AI-focused data centers. She emphasized that residents deserve transparent information rather than unproven economic promises. City officials, including Erica Garaffo from the City Manager’s Office, stated that all data center projects would undergo rigorous vetting, including environmental review and public outreach, similar to any other development. San Jose previously announced a partnership with PG&E in July to facilitate data center development, with PG&E tasked with providing power and grid improvements for 12 projects by 2030. The city aims to leverage 2,000 megawatts of increased power capacity in the South Bay from transmission line projects backed by LS Power Grid. Despite San Jose having fewer data centers than neighboring Santa Clara, which has reached its grid capacity limits, residents remain skeptical. Concerns are particularly high regarding a preliminary proposal for real estate company Prologis to develop a 159-acre site at the San Jose-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility for over 1 million square feet of data center space. Alviso resident Marcos Espinoza, president of Alviso in Action, noted that the community has not been contacted about the project, raising fears about noise, air pollution, and impacts on sensitive burrowing owl habitats. Opponents fear that by the time public meetings occur, the projects will have too much momentum for resident input to be effective, even though city officials project significant annual tax contributions from new data centers.