Oakland residents want answers before a data center opens in their city. On Tuesday, October 6, the Oakland City Council will vote on a 45-day moratorium that would temporarily stop new data centers from being built or run anywhere in Oakland. Councilmembers need to vote yes.

District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife introduced the measure after a plan surfaced to turn a four-story downtown office building, once home to a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory supercomputer, into a data center. Residents have raised worries about noise, water pollution and higher energy bills. Right now, the city has no clear rules for how a facility like this should operate near homes and businesses.

A short pause would give Oakland time to learn how data centers could affect the environment and the local economy, and to write rules before anything moves forward. "I think it's important for us to pause, particularly in light of the fears and concerns that so many people have, to find out what would be possible in Oakland so we know the appropriate guardrails to put in place," Councilmember Fife said, according to The Daily Californian.

Oakland isn't alone. According to District 4 Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, San Francisco, Richmond and Hayward are also pushing for data center moratoriums.

Because this is an urgency measure, it needs seven votes to pass instead of the usual five. That means every councilmember's vote matters. The moratorium is not a permanent ban. Any longer-term limits would need a separate vote later. It simply buys time to get the facts.

Sign the petition to tell the Oakland City Council to vote yes on the data center moratorium on October 6, before a decision this big is made without the facts.