Hi Reader,

Lately it’s felt like the data center boom is speeding up, and one of the hardest parts is telling fact from fiction. Big numbers get tossed around (jobs, tax revenue, rate impacts), but communities often don’t get the full story until decisions are already underway.

The good news is that you don’t have to sort it out alone. Our network is full of people who can get you the answers you need quickly—lawyers, policy experts, scientists, and community organizers who are eager to support your work.

The simplest way to get started is to head over to the network space and make a post with your question or request. We’ll make sure you get connected with someone who can help.

There's lots to dig into this week, so let's get to it.

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This bi-weekly newsletter is a new project from Halt the Harm Network. For more regular updates and meetups on data center organizing, request access to the Stop Bad Data Centers group inside the HHN community space.

What We're Following

Data center “waste heat” is measurably warming nearby neighborhoods

A new open-access study in the Phoenix metro area is the first to measure air temperatures downwind of operating data centers. Researchers found that data center heat can function like a localized thermal hazard, with implications for public health, and rising household cooling costs, especially during extreme heat.

​Read the study here.​

A utility mega-merger could supercharge the data center boom

The Invading Sea reports on a proposed $67B merger between NextEra Energy and Dominion, a deal that would create a utility giant at exactly the moment data centers are driving rapid spikes in electricity demand. The merger could accelerate NextEra's own data-center ambitions by leveraging Dominion’s infrastructure and relationships.

Consumer and climate advocates warn that bigger utilities can also mean bigger political power, weaker accountability, and more new fossil generation, while everyday ratepayers foot the bill.

​Read the full piece here.​

If data centers are such a public good, why are so many getting built in secret?

Data center development often moves forward through NDAs, opaque deals, and information that arrives after key decisions are already in motion. This piece from the Brockovich Report argues that transparency shouldn’t depend on developer good faith.

It also flags how industry-backed messaging campaigns tend to spotlight jobs and tax revenue, while downplaying the less-visible costs like grid strain, water draw, and nonstop noise.

​Read it here.​

Upcoming Events

All event replays can be found in the Recordings Space in the HHN Network.​

HHN Monthly Networking Session

Welcome to HHN’s monthly networking session, a space to connect with fellow members, share what you’re working on, and learn how to make the most of the network.

If you’re new to HHN, join a few minutes early for a quick orientation to resources, how to engage, and easy ways to collaborate with others.

What to expect:

• Introductions & networking: Meet other members and share what projects, initiatives, or goals you’re pursuing this year.
• Share your announcements: Bring a project you want feedback on, an idea you’re testing, or an update you want to amplify.
• Open discussion: Swap lessons learned, ask questions, and surface support opportunities.

​RSVP here.​

Gateway 4: Data Center Tax Incentive Negotiations

Our Gateway working sessions are a facilitated Zoom space to compare notes, share on-the-ground experience, and refine practical tools communities can use at key decision points in the data center development process. Notes and follow-up resources will be shared with participants afterward.

Gateway 4 focuses on tax incentives and deal-making. It’s the moment when developers and local/state officials negotiate subsidies, exemptions, and economic development packages that can lock communities into long-term costs.

If you’re trying to get clear numbers on what’s being offered, this session is for you.

​Join the next Gateway session here.​

Understanding & Preventing Data Center Noise Pollution

As data centers rapidly expand across both rural and urban communities, one impact keeps surfacing again and again: noise. Les Blomberg, Founder & Executive Director of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, will lead a two-part webinar series that equips communities with both the scientific grounding and practical tools to prevent and address harmful impacts.

Part 1: The Science of Noise will cover the fundamentals organizers need to make a strong case, including how sound travels, how it’s measured, what common readings miss, and the health impacts of chronic exposure.

​Register for Part 1 here.​

Part 2: Policy, Prevention, & Community Protection will focus on practical community protections, including ordinance language, monitoring and enforcement considerations, and the challenges of regulating industrial noise from data centers.

​Register for Part 2 here.​

Event Recap

200 Feet Away: One Family’s Unexpected Fight Against a Data Center

Last week we were joined by Jessica Sharp and Quintin Koger Kidd, two community advocates from Wilmington, Ohio who have been organizing around a 4-million-square-foot Amazon Web Services hyperscale data center campus planned right behind Jessica’s home.

Together, they shared practical lessons from the front lines like how to organize early, ask detailed questions, build relationships, and insist on transparency throughout the process.

One big share: Jessica has opened up her personal campaign toolkit drive, which you can find here. It includes personal and expert testimony, reports, petitions, sample ordinances, letters to the editor, organizing materials, planning and zoning resources, tax abatement information, and more that other communities can adapt and use.

​Watch the full replay here.​

Gateway 3: Water Rights & Environmental Permits

Water is a leverage point. That was the throughline of our June 3 working session on Gateway 3: Water Rights & Environmental Permits.

Amy Adams, Deputy Director of the Southeast Climate and Energy Network and a former regional supervisor with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, joined us to break down how communities can use water and wetlands issues to slow, condition, or stop a data center project, and to reframe data centers for what they are: large industrial facilities that require land, electricity, backup power, water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure.

​Watch the discussion here.​

Closing Comment

Experts can help communities move faster, whether it’s an environmental engineer, a lawyer, a policy specialist, or someone who’s been through this fight before.

But expertise is more than just a job title. It also shows up in the people who make a few extra calls, bring food to a neighbor after a long meeting, share a contact, or simply listen when it’s heavy. Those skills are important, too.

Our work feels less daunting when we support each other. So ask for help when you need it, and share what you’re learning as you go.

If you’re facing a proposal right now (or you’re hearing early rumblings), we want to hear about it. Just reply to this email and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

More soon,

Elissa

Elissa Yoder ​Organizing Fellow, Halt the Harm Network ​View Profile​

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