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Data Centers Will Pave Over Land 10X Mexico City's Footprint—Largely in the United States
Yet Trump Refuses to Temper the AI Fury He Unleashed.
President Trump has made crypto and AI data centers a centerpiece of his agenda. As I wrote back in April, Trump has worked consistently to speed AI's development, smash regulation, all while dealing himself in as a "crypto tycoon." But as data centers roll out over physical and economic landscapes across the United States at a clip many can’t help but equate to a modern-day plague, even his political instincts have begun to nag that perhaps he should tone it down. Just a little.
Pathways to actual reform have been mapped out, particularly by Independent Congress member Bernie Sanders, who is advancing both a desired moratorium on AI (a "reasonable pause to ensure the safety of humanity") and a plan to then nationalize it. Or half of it.
But Trump prefers to strike a pose as a reformer while his family cashes in.
For all of us the stakes are too high to ignore. We learned a few days ago that if data centers were a country they would already rank as the eleventh largest consumer of energy on planet Earth.
And they are on their way to the six spot by 2030.
Water? 2030 projections suggest they will require a 2.5-trillion-gallon drawdown annually, enough water to provide for 1.3 billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This is according to a startling new report from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).
And land? Data centers are on course to gobble up 10 times the footprint of Mexico City by 2030.
And where is this gobbling happening the fastest? Not Mexico. It's here in the United States, where we already have more than 4,150 data centers operating. Compared to China’s 381.
But Trump hasn’t veered from national security argument even as many in the base have started breaking ranks on the issue. But he's at least worried about his image.
Trump's June 2 executive order (signed, uncharacteristically for Trump, in a private ceremony) appears designed to look like oversight, but, after scrapping a previous version after heavy lobbying by Big Techies and his own AI czar, David Sacks, it has proven to be so weak that it’s “on the verge of meaningless.”
It is, as Politico summarizes, “the AI industry’s latest victory in its push to avert heavier federal oversight.”
There is nothing in the EO about paving over fertile farmland. Nothing about depleting aquifers or poisoning groundwater. Nothing about energy use or polluting communities. Nothing about protecting workers from engineered obsolesence.
As the Climate Justice Alliance framed it:
❌ No mandatory environmental review.
❌ No energy or water use disclosures.
❌ No legal protections for communities.
❌ No Tribal consultation. No cumulative impact analysis.
Nothing about the downstream impacts, in other words. It’s not even regulation. The order makes that explicit.
The EO reads:
“Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the creation of a mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement for the development, publication, release, or distribution of new AI models.”
It merely invites companies to voluntarily submit for review models that could, you know, melt down the world as we know it. It invites companies into an emerging federal AI cybersecurity clearinghouse “in voluntary collaboration with the AI industry and operators of critical infrastructure... .”
And we're doing all of this...to beat China? Really?
Really-really?
Global Distribution of Data Centers
Here’s the EO, FWIW (and it ain't much).
Action Corner
Pumping brakes on EPA fast tracking data centers + Support Bernie and AOC’s AI Data Center Moratorium Act.
Madison Herber
Bell County Commissioners to vote on June 15.
Data Centers Bringing Major New Pollution Sources to San Antonio’s West Side
Frustration marked public hearing for Vantage Data Center’s TX2 expansion plans at Highway 151 and Wiseman.
Greg Harman | Deceleration
Close to 100 anxious area residents gathered a week and a half ago inside a plush Marriott hotel meeting room a short hike from SeaWorld on San Antonio’s Far West Side to voice their concern about a massive AI data center going up blocks away.
They complained about noise and dust and loss of tree canopy from area data center construction (and there’s a lot of it these days) only to be told that the company up for review, Vantage Data Centers LLC, is complying with all existing local ordinances.
One woman, who said she was part of a military family recently relocated to San Antonio, said bright lights at night were disrupting her sleep. She got little sympathy from company representatives or regulators from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) at the front of the room.
Others complained about water use and potential contaminated water discharge from Vantage Data Center’s expanding footprint only to be told that the facility’s “closed-loop” cooling system made water a non-issue. When challenged, the TCEQ reps admitted that they didn’t actually bring any members of their water team to the meeting so they couldn’t, in fact, answer any water-related questions.
There were no fact sheets or maps provided for residents. And at times it was unclear what facility was being discussed.
Simmering tensions grew increasingly strained as the night wore on and panelists deflected most questions that fell outside of the parameters of the permit in question: a federal Title V operating permit for Vantage’s TX2 facility at 5207 Rogers Road, a two-story, 215,000 square-foot data center expansion being built just blocks away. It is the second major facility on the 30-some-acre lot. A three-story data center is already operating—at least partially.
Vantage's Rogers Road operations lifted off without a hearing or local input. A letter filed by opponents in February states that the TCEQ approved the original air permit the same day it was filed by the company.
The federal permit in question is required now, however, due to the area’s poor air quality and Vantage’s desire to now more than double its existing 32 diesel generators approved for the location to 65.
Residents were outraged at the lack of consultation and how advanced operations are already.
“What pisses me off is seeing Third World infrastructure fricking being developed and [people] being forced to deal with low air quality issues,” said a resident of the Alamo Ranch community, who described himself as a combat veteran and cancer survivor.
"I was in Kuwait where they don't care to have standards, you know, fumes, toxic dust, everything floating around. … Why are we knocking in so many of these data centers in such a small area that's already zoned for residential?"