One of the labor leaders said it best when he said no one would want to shut down a project that benefits a union worker. But based on conversations we’ve had with a lot of significantly impacted people, we have reached the conclusion that New Jersey urgently needs a deeper more substantive conversation – and action plan - about data centers and their impact on our citizens.

The legislature undertook hearings on artificial intelligence and routinely probed the intentions of data center drivers, but we need a much more comprehensive authoritative executive agenda. We believe Governor Sherrill (who to her credit has already begun the conversation and put in place some guardrails) should lead a conference to pull all the people together, from labor unions to industry leaders, big and small tech, to environmentalists, to community activists, to local business owners, and elected officials at all levels, to scrutinize the impact – and not only environmentally. We need facts on the table. We must – with all expedition - consider the long-range implications of data centers on our population.

We don’t want to hurt a single job.

But certainly, we do not want to create an environment where human labor gets crushed by an unregulated and rushed industry.

We don’t want Hal the computer locking us in suspended animation, outside the pod bay door of our own cherished Garden State. The fact that Trump and his big tech allies want to get this up and running without delay and without substantive community input and absent regulations provides no comfort.

So, Governor Sherrill, please take heed. Understand, with so much misinformation out there, and people drawing their own conclusions, we do need a very well organized, and very well-covered, public conference. Appreciating the work already done, the guardrails to date put in place, we also recognize that the public still has significant gnawing questions about this industry and its impact on the environment, labor, and humanity.

--Max Pizarro

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