California's Largest AI Datacenter Plan Halted by Judge After Community Backlash

A lawyer's bid to build the biggest artificial intelligence datacenter in California has been put on hold after a county judge ruled the project must undergo an extensive environmental review before it can proceed.

Sebastian Rucci, 66, targeted a barren plot in Imperial county in late 2024 - land zoned for industrial use that allowed him to seek an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act. He said he had invested about $5m in the nearly 1m-square-foot facility and claimed Google had shown interest in becoming its tenant. A Google spokesperson said the company was "not involved in a datacenter project in Imperial county."

The proposal drew fierce resistance. More than half a dozen lawsuits were filed, recall efforts targeted local officials who backed the project, and a temporary 45-day datacenter moratorium was approved. Residents voiced fears over emissions, harm to rare desert wildlife, grid constraints, dwindling water from the Colorado River and noise.

Rucci denied the project would cause such effects and said he would challenge the judge's ruling. "It'll be just a matter of time," he said. "I'm not going away."

Source: The Guardian