Facts Are Stubborn Things When it Comes to Data Centers and Prop 45

Ronald Reagan, who signed the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in 1970, often repeated the John Adams quote, “facts are stubborn things.”

Indeed they are – particularly when it comes to the question of whether data centers are included in Proposition 45, 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.

Experts from two of California’s flagship independent academic institutions, UC Davis and UC Berkeley, agree: Proposition 45 WILL speed the construction of data centers. (Compare that to the “experts” trotted out by the Yes campaign: a Trumpian attorney who is a featured speaker at the Federalist Society and a former Republican regulator whose clients include the telecommunications industry).

The highly respected law publication The Daily Journal recently published an extensive column on the issue authored by two of the state’s leading land use attorneys. As they point out, “The drafters of Prop 45 explicitly excluded a long list of controversial projects…Data centers are conspicuously absent from that list.”

And a UC Berkeley School of Law Professor also noted recently in the publication Legal Planet: “Why not just explicitly exclude data centers from the initiative? The proponents are smart, strategic actors – they knew to amend their initiative to exclude the Delta water project, because they knew what a political football it was. Data centers have become particularly unpopular lately, but it was an issue back in the winter. A simple one line stating that data centers are not covered by the initiative would have obviated all of this debate. And even more than that, the proponents could have added such a disclaimer to the ballot language for the initiative, which is the most important legislative history for the initiative – that language was finalized over the summer, when it was clear that the inclusion of data centers in the initiative would be a campaign issue. But again, no such statement is in the ballot language.”

Moreover, follow the money. Data center developers continue to pour millions into the campaign to pass Proposition 45, including $250,000 from Prologis. Prologis is planning at least five data centers in San Jose – including a massive 99-megawatt, 516,050 square foot facility – and aims to become one of the largest players in the business with as many as 100 data center projects worldwide.

Also of note: the California Chamber of Commerce, which is bankrolling Prop 45, opposed all seven bills in the data center package recently signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, including the nation-leading SB 887 by Sen. Steve Padilla (D-San Diego), which protects ratepayers from increased costs from data centers, among other climate and water protections. Prop 45 would undo SB 887’s protections.

While the propaganda department of the Yes on 45 campaign is trying to deny and explain away, the facts show otherwise. And that’s why public support for Prop 45, as one journalist noted last week, is “cratering,” dropping 24 points and below 50% in a recent PPIC poll.

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