Tech Giants Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft to Hear from Front-Line Communities and Consumers Demanding Clean Energy, Efficiency and Transparency.
WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 26, 2025 – Green America launched a new consumer campaign to call on AI companies to use 100% renewable energy instead of driving fossil fuel demand, re-starting old nuclear reactors, creating more pollution and increasing energy rates for ratepayers. The new Dirty Data: Stop Big AI From Polluting Our Climate & Communities campaign will also push companies to listen to families and stakeholders living near proposed data centers and fossil fuel power plants, and to give them a say over their own exposure to health burdens from data center and air pollution.
AI already consumes enough electricity to power 7 million American homes, and communities are paying the price to feed the demand. Largely due to new energy-greedy data centers, electricity costs $500 more annually for families in Georgia, while Oregon residents saw 50% rate hikes. Families near data centers also experience increased noise, congestion, and pollution.
Dan Howells, Climate Campaigns director at Green America, said: “There is a lot of excitement about artificial intelligence and its potential to make all our lives better. But for all the benefits, AI comes with a big environmental cost. So, the choices companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft make are critical. They could choose a new clean energy future and not return to a dangerous and dirty energy past. In order for the AI revolution to really be intelligent, it must be powered by renewables.”
Triple Threat: Coal, Natural Gas, and Nukes
AI is a major driver of polluting and dangerous power plants nationwide. It is so power-hungry that utilities are keeping coal-fired power plants that were slated for closure running to meet the needs of massive servers.
Natural gas is a new go-to energy source for AI. In the American South alone, there are plans for 20 gigawatts of new natural-gas power plants over the next 15 years—enough to power millions of homes—to feed AI’s energy needs.
Tech companies are also turning to nuclear power—with Microsoft and Meta re-opening or expanding nuclear plants. And both Google and Amazon are investing in small nuclear reactors.
Nuclear power has many downsides, including safety issues, the problems with nuclear waste disposal, and cost overruns and delays, and is unlikely to meet AI’s soaring energy needs— which means even more reliance on fossil fuels unless tech titans ramp up renewable energy fast.
Driving Climate Chaos
Major corporations must reduce their emissions to keep the world from warming more than 1.5 degrees, and yet carbon emissions from major tech companies in 2023 have skyrocketed to 150% of their average 2020 values:
- Operational emissions grew to 182% of 2020 values for Amazon
- 155% for Microsoft
- 145% for Meta
- 138% for Google
All four tech giants previously made major climate commitments and pledged to use 100% renewable energy. By spending billions of dollars on AI, they are breaking their promise to use 100% renewable energy and furthering the climate and energy crises.
Meanwhile, other industries reliant on data servers are making progress on climate. For example, emissions from large telecom companies decreased to 94% of 2020 values. Green America’s “Hang Up on Fossil Fuels” campaign urged telecoms to switch to 100% renewable energy and their resulting use of wind and solar power has lowered their carbon footprint. Progress is possible!
Your Voice Powers the Energy Revolution
The Dirty Data campaign will mobilize Green America members and people around the country to ensure AI becomes a force for climate solutions, not climate destruction. The campaign will demand that tech giants:
- Build Smart, Build Clean
Data centers should go where they won’t harm communities. Many existing data centers create more noise, pollution, and congestion for underserved neighborhoods already dealing with unsafe and unhealthy conditions. Communities should be fully involved in the placement process to ensure everyone benefits from data center construction.
- Put Efficiency First
Design AI programs to do more with less energy—more efficient chips and processing. No more wasteful computing when lives and our climate are on the line.
- Zero Fossil Fuels, No Nukes, Period
Every aspect of AI processing must run on clean energy—no coal, no gas, no nuclear. We don’t lack the right technology, just corporate commitment and accountability.
- Community Power
Listen to families living near proposed data centers and power sources and give them a say—they deserve transparency, pollution protection, and fair electricity rates that don't subsidize corporate energy consumption.
- Transparency
Major AI companies are building more and bigger data centers without being fully transparent about issues like the electricity and water needed to run them. If these companies are to be good neighbors and take responsibility for the pollution generated from fossil fuels, they first need to be honest about the scope and scale of the problem.
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MEDIA CONTACT: Max Karlin for Green America, (703) 276-3255 or mkarlin@hastingsgroupmedia.com.
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Green America is the nation’s leading green economy organization. Founded in 1982, Green America provides the economic strategies, organizing power and practical tools for businesses and individuals to solve today’s social and environmental problems. http://www.GreenAmerica.org
