Forty mayors are on the pact, although that number is expected to grow, reports Associated Press. It comes amid concerns that data centers will devour natural resources, drive up energy prices and prevent governments from hitting climate targets.
However, the pact wasn’t made because the mayors don't want data centers. Rather, the mayors want to ensure data centers are done sustainably.
"We understand the importance of this innovation, it's creating great jobs in our community," said Kate Gallego, mayor of Phoenix, Arizona. "We just want to make sure that we get it right for our local residents and for the health of our planet."
Patrick Hedger, director of policy at NetChoice, said it's good that mayors want data centers to become part of their communities, adding they bring investment and potential jobs to communities.
Still, Hedger said there's also a lot of "misinformation" about data centers.
"I worry that this action is being shaped by that misinformation related to resource use and their impact on communities and the mistaken idea that data centers are not already subject to all of the applicable regulations related to energy use, water usage, pollution, noise and other nuisance ordinances and land use restrictions," Hedger tells AFN.
When pressed for examples, Hedger said that some data centers use water while others do not. It depends, ultimately, on the type of cooling technology and the available resources in an area.
"In a place like Arizona, it's not a good idea to use a lot of water, but in places where water is abundant, water based cooling is a good option," says Hedger. "It doesn't make a lot of business sense to go into an area without the necessary resources for your facility, but on a nationwide scale, data centers use a fraction of a percentage of water consumption in the United States."
When looking at the entire United States, data centers account for a relatively small fraction of total nationwide water use — frequently hovering at or under 1% of total U.S. water consumption.
"Even in areas where data centers are heavily concentrated, like in northern Virginia, the water uses is about 3% of local water usage," states Hedger. "The large hyperscale data centers use about the same amount of water — if they use water-based cooling, which is a big if — as one to two golf courses would use depending on the weather, and a lot of that water is actually returned back into the system if a data center is using it, or if it's used in the closed loop versus on a golf course, a lot of that water is lost to evaporation."
