Hamid Akhavi
This combined report covers reliable developments published after the website’s September 4–8 report. Repeated items have been removed, and the report distinguishes the date of an event from its publication date, claims by interested parties from independent findings, and investment from revenue and profit.
Overview
During these five days, resistance moved beyond opposition to individual projects and toward concrete institutional tools: disclosure of contracts, municipal pauses, reopening electricity-rate cases, legal challenges, demands for human oversight in collective bargaining, and neighborhood organizing before projects are approved. Governments and industry, meanwhile, continued to press for faster permitting and weaker environmental restrictions.
Tasmania — Six secret projects disclosed; stronger review of Firmus rejected
Development published September 9. A document submitted to parliament after pressure from the Greens disclosed six data-center proposals whose applicants remain confidential. Two are at the feasibility and site-selection stage and four are conceptual. Two projects have each requested 200–300 megawatts of power, and minimum demand from all six would be about 500 megawatts if built. This is separate from three Firmus facilities seeking a combined 444 megawatts.
On the same day, the Tasmanian government declined the Latrobe Council’s request to move the 52-megawatt Firmus project at Wesley Vale into the more integrated “major project” assessment process. The government and Environmental Protection Authority said noise, emissions, and ecological risks could be handled locally. Firmus projected about 70 construction jobs and more than 20 permanent jobs, but these are company estimates; wage rates and employment guarantees were not published.
Sources: ABC reporting on the six confidential projects; Tasmania’s official public-consultation page.
Saginaw, Michigan — A public meeting without public trust
Meeting September 8; report published September 9. About one hundred people attended a meeting at Saginaw Valley State University about tax exemptions, water and electricity use, local authority, and jobs. The organizing coalition, Michigan for Responsible Data Centers, was initiated by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and should not be described as an independent grassroots anti-data-center group.
Some attendees accused organizers of trying to persuade the public on behalf of industry and walked out. Residents asked why local hiring was not guaranteed and what stable jobs would remain after construction. Consumers Energy claimed that data-center companies would pay all dedicated infrastructure costs, but the contracts cited were not released with the report.
Source: Midland Daily News field reporting.
Australia — A proposed right to opt out of algorithmic feeds
Draft released September 8; detailed reporting September 9. An Australian government proposal would require social platforms, search engines, and certain AI services to let users choose between personalized feeds and content from accounts they follow. Infinite scrolling and some personalization mechanisms would be disabled for children under sixteen. Penalties could exceed A$100 million; that figure is a maximum penalty, not company revenue or profit.
The proposal has not become law. It is not opposition to algorithms as such, but an attempt to return part of the control over choice and attention from platforms to users.
Source: The Guardian’s account of the proposal and responses.
OpenAI and Microsoft litigation — Requests for summary judgment
Court action September 4; report published September 8. OpenAI and Microsoft on one side, and The New York Times, other media organizations, and writers including John Grisham and George R. R. Martin on the other, asked a federal court in Manhattan to decide major parts of the case without a full trial. The judge has not ruled.
Rights holders say unauthorized use of millions of articles and books weakens the labor market for writers and journalists. The companies characterize model training as transformative use. This is not an employment case and does not concern wage rates, but it may help define how far companies may appropriate and exploit socially produced intellectual work.
Source: Reuters legal reporting.
Indianapolis — A $71 million electricity-rate increase reopened
Development published September 10. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission agreed to reconsider a previously approved $71 million AES Indiana rate increase. The figure represents additional approved rate revenue, not profit. The Office of Utility Consumer Counselor and Citizens Action Coalition asked that the effects of Google’s Monrovia data center and a possible acquisition of AES’s parent company by a BlackRock-led consortium be included.
The commission may affirm, revise, or reverse its decision; no rate reduction or final consumer victory has yet occurred. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for September 17.
Source: Axios Indianapolis.
United States — Efforts to ease rules for data-center gas turbines
Published September 10. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was reportedly considering whether some temporary gas turbines could be classified as mobile or non-road equipment, potentially exempting them from requirements applied to stationary pollution sources. No new rule has yet been formally proposed or finalized.
Environmental groups say some developers divide projects or permits to remain below regulatory thresholds. A VoltaGrid permit, for example, allows 49.97 tons of nitrogen-oxide emissions per year, just below a 50-ton threshold. That is a claim made by groups issuing a legal notice, not a court finding. This is not itself an act of resistance; it is a regulatory counteroffensive by government and industry against environmental limits.
Source: Axios reporting on the EPA pathway.
Brazil — A center for algorithm oversight
Announced September 9. Brazil’s national data-protection authority announced a specialized center to examine algorithms, infinite scrolling, excessive notifications, risks to children, and creation of nonconsensual private images. No precise launch date was given.
The authority previously fined ByteDance 153.7 million reais over its processing of children’s data. This was an administrative fine, not company revenue or profit. The new center is an attempt to build public technical capacity to oversee systems whose decisions and use of data remain opaque to users.
Source: Folha de S.Paulo.
Salem, Oregon — Rally and a limited pause on state-land use
Rally and executive order September 8; follow-up published September 9. Protesters gathered outside the state capitol and called for a halt to all new data centers. Governor Tina Kotek voiced support for a statewide pause but said the legislature would have to enact it.
The executive order only pauses unapproved applications to lease, sell, transfer, cross, or otherwise use state-owned land through July 1, 2027; it does not cover private land. The governor’s office says the POWER Act increased data-center electricity rates on Portland General Electric’s grid by about 29 percent while reducing rates for other customers. That is an official state claim.
Source: official statement from the Oregon governor.
San Francisco and the U.S. Congress — Municipal pause and grid costs
On September 10, Shamann Walton and three other San Francisco supervisors announced that they would introduce a 45-day pause on accepting new data-center proposals on September 15. Walton’s office described it as a step toward a permanent ban. The proposal had not yet passed. Concerns include electricity use, noise, generator pollution, and proximity to homes and schools.
At the same time, lawmakers announced that the Customer Protection Act, H.R. 9430, would receive a House vote. Supporters say data centers should pay for the generation, transmission, and grid upgrades they require. Critics warn that parts of the guidance are not binding and that the broader package could accelerate data-center connections while limiting some environmental reviews.
Sources: San Francisco Chronicle; Reuters reporting on H.R. 9430.
Nevada — First proposed data center on federal land paused
Ruling September 1; new reporting September 11. The Interior Board of Land Appeals stayed an amendment to the Townsite Solar 2 permit near Boulder City. The original permit covered a 19-megawatt solar plant on about 80 acres, but it was later altered to include a data center of nearly 300,000 square feet, a 70-megawatt battery, and emergency biodiesel generators.
The Bureau of Land Management treated the effects of the new project as substantially similar to those of the solar plant without a new assessment. The board said opponents were likely to show fundamental differences and inadequate analysis of noise, construction duration, land, and wildlife. The ruling is temporary, but it prevents an assessment for one use from being applied automatically to a fundamentally different project.
Source: the full Interior Board of Land Appeals ruling.
Clearfield, Utah — A preventive 180-day pause
Decision September 8; report published September 11. The city council voted 4–0 to pause data-center development for 180 days while it studies electricity demand, water use, noise, land, and infrastructure. No specific project is pending, so the decision is preventive and the city does not describe it as a permanent ban.
Source: KSL.
Spain — More than 600 comments on energy rules
The comment period ended September 11. A government draft would require new data centers to provide new renewable generation proportional to their demand and to source as much as 80 percent of hourly electricity use from renewables. More than 600 comments were filed, including support, opposition, and proposed amendments; not all should be treated as grassroots protest.
SpainDC called the proposal a de facto industry ban and claimed that three members might cancel investment. The €67 billion figure is projected investment through 2030, not revenue or profit. The ministry says more than 12 gigawatts of connection rights have been issued, while the national plan anticipated about four gigawatts of demand.
Source: Cadena SER.
Blizzard workers — A contractual right to bargain over AI
Reports on September 9 and 10 described ratified collective agreements covering nearly 1,900 Blizzard Entertainment workers. They are direct employees of the Microsoft-owned studio, not outsourced data-labeling contractors. The agreements require management to consult, evaluate, and bargain with the Communications Workers of America over uses of generative AI that affect working conditions.
The contracts include wage increases, although exact hourly rates were not published; protection against dismissal without just cause; a grievance process; remote-work provisions; at least four additional weeks of benefits during layoffs; and recall rights for vacant positions for up to fourteen months. The agreement does not ban AI. Its achievement is to make human oversight and worker participation an enforceable contractual right.
Source: reporting on the contracts and their AI protections.
Cape Town — A legal challenge to treating data centers as warehouses
Reports published September 9 and 13 said that the objection by Housing Assembly, Foxglove, and the Legal Resources Centre to a hyperscale project near Cape Town’s airport remains pending. City rules still assess large data centers mainly as commercial, industrial, or warehouse facilities.
The two centers would demand about 157–174 megawatts of power. The LRC estimates that if conventional evaporative cooling is used, annual water consumption could reach 1.2 billion gallons. This is a conditional estimate by opponents; actual use has not been disclosed. Documents connect the project to Equinix, but the company says it did not itself submit the development application. The exact contractual relationship remains disputed, and wage information has not been released.
Sources: Tech Policy Press and The Continent; recent Financial Times reporting.
Philadelphia — Neighborhood organizing begins
On September 12, the No Data Centers in Philly campaign began volunteer training and door-to-door organizing. Organizers say two possible sites have been identified, but the city still lacks clear rules on location, resources, and neighborhood protection. They cite possible PECO bill increases, air pollution, surveillance, and tax breaks. At this stage these are campaign claims; no independent assessment of the two projects has been published.
The campaign announced a noon rally at City Hall for September 14 and called for a pause on project applications until regulations are adopted. No independently verified participation figure for the September 12 program was yet available.
Source: Black Alliance for Peace announcement.
The hidden AI labor chain
No new, independently documented development between September 9 and 13 was found concerning wages, nonpayment, psychological injury, or organizing by data labelers, model evaluators, and content moderators in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, the Philippines, India, or Latin America. No date was announced for a possible strike by contracted guards at OpenAI and Anthropic offices. The Blizzard agreement concerns direct game-production employees and should not be conflated with conditions for outsourced AI labor.
Conclusion
The common pattern is a movement from ethical protest toward demands for enforceable power: the right to halt a project before it becomes entrenched, disclosure of resource use, requirements that companies pay grid costs, independent environmental assessment, and collective bargaining over AI. Most of these campaigns are not opposed to technology itself. They oppose concentrated ownership, secret decision-making, and shifting costs onto people and workers.
The leading advances were Blizzard workers’ contractual right to bargain over AI, Clearfield’s preventive pause, and the temporary Nevada stay. The principal dangers were efforts to weaken U.S. pollution requirements, industry pressure against Spain’s rules, and continuing secrecy in Tasmania and Cape Town.
Developments to follow: the Philadelphia rally and Gilroy vote on September 14; introduction of the San Francisco proposal and Hayward review on September 15; and the AES Indiana rate hearing on September 17.
Leave a comment