To hear many in the tech industry tell it, data centers will bring wealth and prosperity not only to those who build them, but to the communities that ultimately live with and around them. However, drawing a longer historical arc is essential: AI is proposed as a new industrial moonshot in communities that have already seen the rise and fall of steel factories, coal plants, fracking infrastructure, and more. Today’s companies are trying to sell communities on yet another industrial vision.
On Sept. 22 at 5:30 p.m., join us in Midtown East, Manhattan, for a panel discussion featuring journalists, nonprofits, and community organizers who are uncovering the impact of data centers across the country and sharing that information with the public.
Our panel discussion will feature
Maia Woluchem, program director of Data & Society’s Trustworthy Infrastructures program;
Alejandra Martinez, The Texas Tribune environmental reporter and Pulitzer Center grantee;
Brian Crawford, Texas resident with the nonprofit Protect the Paluxy Valley; and
Ginny Marcille-Kerslake, Pennsylvania resident and Senior Organizer at Food & Water Watch.
Moderator:
Kit R. Roane, award-winning senior producer at Retro Report
This event is anchored by the launch of Data & Society’s forthcoming report, The AI Factory: Data Centers, Power and Resistance in Late Industrial Pennsylvania, a landmark study emerging out of eighteen months of field research in the Keystone State, as well as Pulitzer Center-supported reporting on data center development by The Texas Tribune.
Light refreshments will be served. Seating is limited, and R.S.V.P. is required.
This panel discussion is co-organized by Data & Society, Retro Report, and The Pulitzer Center.
Retro Report Inc
633 3rd Avenue, #16th floor
New York, NY 10017
Full committee hearing entitled “Converting Energy into Intelligence: the Future of AI Technology, Human Discovery, and American Global Competitiveness.”
Witnesses:
Eric Schmidt, Chair, Special Competitive Studies Project, billionaire
Manish Bhatia, Executive Vice President of Global Operations, Micron Technology
Alexandr Wang, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Scale AI, billionaire
David Turk, Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University
“America is in fierce competition with the People’s Republic of China and the rest of
the world for global dominance in artificial intelligence, or AI. In January, the Trump
Administration announced ‘Stargate,’ a public-private sector venture to accelerate
new developments in this technology.”
Trump rescinded a 2023 executive order from then-President Joe Biden on AI requiring developers that pose risks to national security, the economy or public health to share results from safety tests with the federal government. That order also had directed DOE and other agencies to develop guidelines for “safe” AI development.
Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle joined Trump at the White House on January 22, 2025 for the announcement, which was actually underway during the Biden administration.
“This is the beginning of golden age,” said Son.
The Stargate Project is a new company with SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and MGX as lead investors. Microsoft and Nvidia are partnering in the project and construction at one site has started at a site in Texas. Stargate data centers already under construction in Abilene, Texas, currently involve 10 buildings that will expand to 20. Each building is a half million square feet.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee