A new CommonWealth Beacon op-ed from Clean Water Action Massachusetts Director Cynthia Mendes and Slingshot Co-Executive Director Mireille Bejjani examines the environmental and community impacts of data center development across the Commonwealth.
While Gov. Maura Healey’s recent decision to pause data center tax incentives while stronger protections are developed is a welcome step, Cynthia Mendes and Slingshot Co-Executive Director Mireille Bejjani argue that Massachusetts must ask a bigger question: Do these projects actually serve the public interest?
Data centers require enormous amounts of electricity and can place additional pressure on an already strained energy system. They can also bring significant water use, pollution, noise, wastewater, and other environmental impacts. The authors warn that these burdens could fall disproportionately on communities that have already experienced the impacts of polluting infrastructure.
The op-ed points to growing community concerns across the Commonwealth, including in Lowell, where residents are fighting a proposed data center expansion, as well as recent decisions in Holyoke and Westfield to restrict or pause new data center development.
At the heart of the issue is who gets to decide what happens next.
What are our communities asking for and what do they need?
Cynthia and Mireille argue that Massachusetts should put environmental justice and meaningful community participation at the center of any decisions about data center development.
Read the full op-ed in CommonWealth Beacon:
Massachusetts must put communities before data center profits
Cynthia Mendes is Massachusetts Director of Clean Water Action. This post highlights and summarizes her co-authored op-ed originally published by CommonWealth Beacon.
