In Silicon Valley’s biggest city, residents and environmental groups are organizing against a wave of proposed data center projects that officials have courted in a bid to position the city as a hub for AI infrastructure. The clash highlights a challenge confronting policymakers nationwide: how to support an industry viewed by government and business leaders as critical to economic competitiveness while responding to growing public concerns about the electricity, water and pollution impacts of the infrastructure required to power it.In California, that debate is particularly fraught because the state is home to many of the companies driving the AI boom, including Google, Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic. Is silicon valley developement becoming increasingly dangerous ?
