How Prop 45 could reshape California’s fight over data centers
California’s Proposition 45 could expedite environmental reviews for infrastructure projects and potentially make it easier to build data centers, opponents say. Legal scholars and environmental advocates warn the measure could weaken recently adopted state and local safeguards, while supporters and data center backers dispute that interpretation.
California voters are considering Proposition 45, an infrastructure measure marketed as a way to accelerate housing, school and other critical projects. Opponents argue its provisions for streamlining environmental reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act could extend to data centers and related infrastructure, allowing developers to bypass local scrutiny and undermine city and county moratoriums, bans and other safeguards.
Julia Stein, a legal scholar and deputy director of UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said the measure’s broad language could create a loophole by covering projects ancillary to streamlined telecommunications and broadband facilities. Data center supporters say Proposition 45 would not benefit the industry, although some beneficiaries are backing the measure financially.