DATA CENTER BUILDER DONATES BIG TO PASS PROPOSITION 45

Measure Would Gut Community Protections on Siting Energy and Water Intensive Projects

SACRAMENTO – One of the world’s largest data center builders has contributed $250,000 to the Yes on Proposition 45 campaign, according to records filed with the California Secretary of State. Proposition 45 is the California Chamber of Commerce’s 41-page ballot initiative that would roll back state environmental protections and weaken the state’s defense against President Trump’s attack on state clean air, water, and public health laws.

Proligis, based in San Rafael, is the largest industrial real estate company in the world, according to its website. It has contributed $250,000 to the Yes on 45 campaign through its “Modern Infrastructure Alliance Action Fund.”

The company is closely aligned with the Trump Administration; U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum recently said at a conference that the administration “want[s] to support great companies like Prologis [and] all of their important logistic companies” and committed to accelerating permitting. Its CEO also has contributed to Burgum’s political campaign.

“This mega data center developer is not bankrolling Proposition 45 out of the goodness of its heart,” says Matthew McKerley, an environmental attorney with Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP. “It knows that the measure will silence communities on the siting of controversial water and energy intensive data centers.”

The company is expanding heavily into the data center market to support artificial intelligence and cloud computing. According to data center industry tracker “Data Center Dynamics,” Prologis plans to ramp up to 10GW of data center power capacity in the next ten years. For context, 10GW of power draw is more than average residential electricity demand across the whole state of California.

Its massive data center projects in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Georgia are generating significant local opposition. Opponents note these projects have major impacts on agricultural land, water and power use.

In California, Prologis is planning at least five data centers in San Jose, including a massive 99-megawatt, 516,050 square foot facility. Using an industry-standard estimate for average household energy consumption of 1.2 KW, the 99-megawatt facility would draw as much electricity as approximately 80,000 homes, more than the residential population of Fremont. Local residents are organizing strong opposition to the data center campus, which will be powered by PG&E. That utility has contributed $500,000 to the Yes on 45 campaign.

Prologis has a track record of trying to override community and environmental protections. In Oakland, it was behind a project to ship Utah coal to China through a shipping terminal that drew strong community opposition. It also is investing heavily in companies that seek to displace warehouse workers and truck drivers with robots and other technologies.

Prologis executives have been outspoken critics of the California Environmental Quality Act and the state’s regulations.

Prologis’s CEO was quoted at a recent conference calling for “the government to get the hell out of the way and create the conditions where [CEOs] can do their job.”

Company president Dan Letter has said it is “just getting harder to build warehouses,” specifically calling out Southern California’s strong community activism and powerful planning and zoning commissions as major obstacles.

“Independent experts repeatedly note that Proposition 45 will limit community input and fast-track data centers,” says McKerley. “It’s clear that you can connect the dots from this major contribution to the campaign and their intent to railroad the construction of data centers across California.”

# # #