In a full page open letter in the Indianapolis Star, organizations call on the CEOs of big tech companies including Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg, and Satya Nadella to power their data centers with clean energy in order to meet their own climate goal. AI data center proposals across Indiana are said to have utility companies profiting and raising costs for customers.
Signers of the open letter include Faith in Place, Earth Charter Indiana, Hoosier Environmental Council, Indiana Environmental Clean Energy J40, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, League of Conservation Voters, Public Citizen, and the Sierra Club.
“We call on you to follow your climate goals by publicly calling on utilities to commit to no new gas and zero delayed coal plant retirements to power your data centers,” the open letter said. “As the largest customers on the grid, tell utilities you need an affordable and reliable decarbonized grid that benefits all customers.”
According to an estimate from Indiana Michigan Power (I&M), Big Tech’s data centers could more than double the need for power just in its service territory by 2030.
“As Big Tech continues to introduce energy-hungry AI data centers in our communities, we need their leadership to course correct to make good on their climate commitments by using their dollars to build renewable energy and infrastructure that makes our electric grid more efficient and resilient,” Megan Anderson, senior campaign representative, Sierra Club, said. “Plans to build out more fossil fuel power for these AI data centers not only betrays their own company values, but puts Hoosiers in the position to foot the bill. Our local leaders and Big Tech leaders need to be loud and clear: Hoosier families and small businesses shouldn’t be forced to subsidize the energy needs of Big Tech through higher energy bills and Big Tech shouldn’t be increasing pollution in Indiana communities.”
Utility companies said they will handle the AI data center proposals from companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta, by introducing new gas plant projects or delaying coal plant closures to power these data centers, Sierra Club reported in a press release.
“Hoosier Environmental Council calls on the tech industry to focus on sustainability, affordable electric bills for Hoosiers, and transparency as they seek sites for AI data centers,” Sam Carpenter, executive director, Hoosier Environmental Council, said. “Careful consideration must be given now to avoid costly consequences for our communities and environment for decades to come.”
Read the open letter here.
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