6 events in Passaic County with a date

Federal lawmakers from NJ want study of effects of AI data centers

By: Nicholas Katzban
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Two members of Congress presentation districts in New Jersey are seeking to compel federal regulators to study impacts of AI data centers on surrounding communities. said Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat from Mercer County.
..... A copy of the pending legislation, which Watson Coleman introduced in the House of Representatives on March 6, [2026] calls for the U.S. energy secretary - a Cabinet position currently held by Chris Wright - to lead a multi-department probe into the growing technology's central hubs.
..... Representative Bob Menendez, of Jersey City co-sponsored the legislation with seven other Democratic members of he House.
..... "Communities of color and low-income neighborhoods are often overburdened and disproportionately impacted by large-scale infrastructure projects," Watson Coleman said, citing toxic air pollution that ravaged communities of color during construction of America's interstate system in the 1950s, "Congress has the responsibility to make sure to not make the same mistake."
..... New Jersey has nearly 82 data hubs, many of them cluster in the Meadowlands, where they serve Manhattan's rapacious digital storage needs and drain the flow of power from nearby energy plants, as reported by NorthJersey.com .
..... AI start-up CoreWeave recently struck a deal to build one in Kenilworth at the former campus of Merck pharmaceuticals.

'Operating the flow'

..... Data centers like the ones being built by CoreWeave dwarf their counterparts operating the flow and storage of data for other levers of the tech industry, in both size and consumption of resources.
..... Data centers have increased their power consumption threefold over the past decade and are expected to triple their intake once again by 2028, says Watson Coleman;s bill, dubbed the Data Center Community Impact Act.
.... In 2023, it took 17 billion gallons of water to keep the computing hubs from overheating as they process, store and transfer a torrent of bytes every day, the bill says. An additional 211 billion gallons were consumed by the hydroelectric plants that power AI's servers, it says.
..... One data center in Secaucus is larger than two football fields. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg announced plans in July [2025] to construct several mew IA data centers across the United States. The footprint of each could fill half the square mileage of Manhattan, the NorthJersey.com story said.
..... Most computer servers work off CPUs, or central processing units. But AI requires the more complex graphic processing units, or CPUs, for their "advanced storage, networking, energy and colling capabilities," IBM's website says. Moreover, AI requires the processors in far greater number then servers run by CPUs,as reported last year. [2025]

Study

..... If the bill is signed into law, heads of multiple federal agencies, including the environmental Protection agency, Department of Commerce, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Council on Environmental quality, would assist in compiling various data points that detail AI's impacts on low-income areas and communities of color.
..... As currently proposed, the advisory committee would be instructed to report findings on the centers' effects on the following resources:
* Local water supplies.
* energy produced using fossil fuels.
* Average power consumption of data centers during peak demand times for all energy needs.
* Food production
* Air quality, pollution and related health risks.
* Job displacement as large-scale industrial sites are converted into data hubs.
..... If it is signed into law, the secretary would have 18 months to furnish congress with a report and the committee's recommendations to mitigate the centers' negative impacts, including guardrails state and local governments could enact.

HOME