Bay Area Data Centre Moratoriums Become a Midterm Issue in the Heart of the AI Boom

In the two months before the vote, at least seven Bay Area cities, including San Francisco, Oakland and Richmond, have passed temporary moratoriums on building data centres, according to the report. Oakland approved its pause on October 6 after several days of protests. San Francisco, Brisbane and Oakland have halted construction for 45 days, with the option of extending it.

Campaigners say the facilities, which run around the clock and need large volumes of water for cooling, will put pressure on the power grid and push up household electricity bills. Carlos Gutierrez, an activist with the environmental justice group Communities for a Better Environment, told Al Jazeera that some Oakland residents were considering turning off their power because prices had risen so much, while the city planned to supply electricity to a data centre.

A Split in the Race for Pelosi's Seat

The issue has divided the two Democrats competing for the House seat Nancy Pelosi will vacate when she retires at the end of the year after 39 years in Congress. San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, who helped push through the city's moratorium in early October, has said she will seek a nationwide moratorium on data centres until responsible AI regulation is in place. "Let's start with a moratorium on data centres," she said at an October debate.

State Senator Scott Wiener opposes a ban. He told Mission Local that "a blanket data centre moratorium could undermine AI regulation." A University of Southern California poll put Wiener ahead of Chan by 47 percent to 41 percent as of mid-October, according to the report.

The backlash reflects national sentiment. Al Jazeera cited Pew Research Center figures showing more than 3,000 data centres operating in the US and more than 1,500 in development, and an October CNBC poll in which 63 percent of registered voters said they opposed building data centres within 10 miles of their homes.

Short Pauses and Missing Data

San Francisco political analyst Shum Preston told Al Jazeera that data centre opposition unites the US public "like no other" issue. He suggested developers had largely stayed quiet at local hearings to avoid creating trouble for local officials before the election. He expects debate to get more heated when the 45-day pauses expire and the campaign season is over.

Officials also say they lack basic information. Supervisor Shamann Walton, who sponsored San Francisco's moratorium ordinance, has argued that the city's planning code, written in 2001, still defines data centres as "internet service exchanges." That makes it hard to count how many exist or to track how much power and water they use. "We cannot use 2001 rules to regulate 2026 technology," he said in a September 14 statement.

Roger Lin, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said 45 days was not enough time to study the facilities' impact and write rules. He added that non-disclosure agreements around data centres limit access to information.

Why It Matters

For AI developers and their infrastructure partners, the Bay Area fight shows that the expansion of compute faces local politics as well as power and chip limits. That matters most where electricity prices are already high. Gulf states are making abundant energy and fast permitting central to their pitch for AI data centre investment. US resistance to new facilities is likely to strengthen that pitch with hyperscalers and model developers looking for capacity.