Dem Rep. Gottheimer on Data Centers: ‘We Have to Meet Strict Environmental Standards’

EXCERPT:

GOTTHEIMER: “If states and locales decide they want to build data centers, which I believe should be totally up to them, right, up to these -- up to communities, if they want to build them, there‘s got to be clear guardrails and rules of the road. Energy prices need to go down, not up. Water bills need to go down, not up. We have to meet strict environmental standards, right? They should go nowhere where a community doesn‘t want them, and they shouldn‘t be getting tax breaks like they have been to go there. Now, these are the kind of things we actually need to have clear guardrails around when it comes to AI. The administration for the last two years have said, 'Rip and run, do whatever you want,' right? Whether that‘s pre-deployment reviews in terms of accountability on agents and runaway agents and -- which we‘ve seen, and we don‘t have children protections for our kids, job -- addressing job issues. This administration has addressed none of those things.”