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A Spirited Battle Over Data Centers

At the Climate Forward live event, policymakers, executives and activists debated the boom in data centers, the growing backlash and its environmental effects.

Listen · 11:47 min

By David Gelles

Sept. 24, 2026

Energy prices are rising. Demand for electricity is surging. Next year is expected to be the hottest on record as a severe El Niño weather pattern gathers steam. And there is no consensus about how the political world or the private sector should meet this moment.

Those were some of the themes that defined a series of expansive conversations we had with policymakers, business leaders and activists yesterday at the Climate Forward live event that we hosted at the Times Center in New York City. (You can watch videos from the sessions here.)

The data centers roiling the nation and shaking up the midterm elections emerged as the day’s main battleground.

During the first panel of the day, I spoke with the environmental activist Erin Brockovich, whose work was the basis of the 2000 movie bearing her name, and State Representative Justin J. Pearson of Tennessee, both of whom are working to oppose data center projects.

Pearson, a Democrat who is currently campaigning to represent Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District, drew attention to the health effects of air pollution from data centers, citing estimates that additional pollution from gas turbines and diesel generators could kill dozens of people each year.

For Pearson, the potential effects of data centers are quite real. “It’s killing people in communities now,” he said of air pollution. He also accused Elon Musk of illegally installing natural gas turbines near his community in Memphis.

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