The mayor has no interest in taking a pause to evaluate what potential impacts bringing a data center to Albany could mean. One thing that helps grab attention is showing that this is not just one or ten folks; so I'm starting a petition to bring forward at a meeting to ask again for our city to listen to the people they represent. 

AI Datacenters have become an overwhelming threat to our communities and resources, but it has been proven across the nation that there is hope for those of us willing to fight; and I ask my fellow Albanians to join me.  These centers deplete our water resources (yes, even closed loop systems), could strain our already outdated and frail waste infrastructure, further pollute our waterways, hike utility bills and potentially strain our power grid or lay the cost of updating the grid on to us as utilities customers. They get their water supply from municipalities to bypass water regulations at a federal and state levels. They have colluded with other companies and the state to steal land from private individuals through "eminent domain" because these centers have been deemed necessary enough to override your constitutional rights. And that's not to even touch on the impacts these programs have had on society.

Enough is enough. 

These things seem inevitable, and that might be true (completely ignoring the AI bubble forming that is), but at the very least we can make sure a center coming in our back yard is done right. Technology advances at a rapid pace after all.  But that starts with transparency. And elected officials publicly denying plans and intent to bring a data center while these companies worm in to test our capabilities with minimal to no oversight is NOT transparency. 

Albany has a voice,  let's make it heard.