No Data Centers in Kern County
Kern County Board of Supervisors
To: The Kern County Board of Supervisors and the California Energy Commission
We're a coalition of youth, working families, small businesses and nonprofits, and we're calling on you to stop the wave of data centers being pushed into Kern County without our consent.
Right now, two massive data centers are proposed on opposite ends of our county, and residents warn they're only the first of many. In western Kern, an oil company wants to build a 600,000 square foot AI data center at Elk Hills, powered by its own natural gas plant, a mile and a half from the nearest homes. In eastern Kern, a developer wants to build in Inyokern with 40 diesel backup generators and pull up to 16 million gallons of water a year from a groundwater basin the state already classifies as critically overdrafted. This is not a coincidence.
Tech and energy companies are targeting Kern because they think our communities are too poor, too rural and too tired to fight back.
They're wrong.
Kern County families already breathe some of the dirtiest air in the nation. Our farmworker communities already ration water in a drought. We will not accept projects that burn more gas, drain more groundwater and lock our county into decades of pollution so that corporations elsewhere can profit off AI. And we won't be sold with promises of jobs that disappear once construction ends.
We're not against technology. We're against being sacrificed for it.
We demand:
- Deny the pending permits. Reject the conditional use permit for the Elk Hills data center and reject the Inyokern project's attempt to skip full state review.
- Pass a countywide moratorium on new data center approvals until Kern County adopts a data center ordinance with enforceable standards on water, energy, air quality and noise.
- Full environmental review, no exceptions. Every data center proposal must go through complete CEQA review with independent analysis of water, air and grid impacts. No exemptions, no shortcuts.
- Real community say. Public hearings in the affected communities, not just Bakersfield, with Spanish language access and evening times working families can actually attend.
- No fossil-fuel-powered data centers. Kern County should not approve any data center that runs on gas while our kids grow up with asthma.
Our communities deserve clean air, secure water and a real voice in what gets built next to our homes. Protect our communities, don't pollute them.
Sign now and tell the Board of Supervisors: No data centers in Kern County without community consent.
In solidarity,
No Data Centers in Kern County Coalition
Sources:
Official filings
- R&L Capital's application to the California Energy Commission for the RB Inyokern Data Center (the 12–16M gallons and 40 diesel generators come from here): https://www.energy.ca.gov/powerplant/backup-generating-system/rb-inyokern-data-center
- CRC's conditional use permit is on file with Kern County Planning and Natural Resources: https://kernplanning.com/
CRC Golden Valley Technology Hub (Elk Hills / western Kern)
- KGET 17 — CRC files for 600,000 sq ft data center outside Taft: https://www.kget.com/news/local-news/were-very-conscious-of-the-notion-that-data-centers-are-in-the-public-eye-crc-proposes-data-center-outside-of-taft/
- Bakersfield Californian — 275 MW gas-powered, 1.5 miles from Valley Acres: https://www.bakersfield.com/news/crc-proposes-w-kern-data-center-with-dedicated-power-closed-loop-cooling/article_5f2d14f7-8f86-4478-958d-513b8f9de1da.html
- Grist — climate groups' rebuttal on air quality and gas power: https://grist.org/energy/a-solution-to-data-center-backlash-put-them-in-oil-fields/
- 23ABC — project overview: https://www.turnto23.com/news/in-your-neighborhood/taft-maricopa/massive-ai-data-center-proposed-for-kern-countys-elk-hills
RB Inyokern Data Center (eastern Kern)
- KGET 17 — 12 to 16 million gallons of water per year: https://www.kget.com/news/local-news/proposed-inyokern-data-center-could-use-12-to-16-million-gallons-of-water-annually/
- KGET 17 — state regulators request more info, 40 diesel generator sets: https://www.kget.com/news/environment/state-regulators-request-more-information-on-proposed-ridgecrest-data-center/
- KGET 17 — conservation district opposition, critically overdrafted basin: https://www.kget.com/news/environment/kern-county-conservation-district-says-ridgecrest-data-center-would-undermine-decades-of-progress/
- Tehachapi News — Ridgecrest council opposition and project specs: https://www.tehachapinews.com/news/data-center-proposed-in-inyokern-draws-water-other-concerns-in-east-kern/article_dc8cc3da-77d1-5e5f-a1bf-2c22444680a6.html
- DataCenterDynamics — industry coverage of the 99MW proposal: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/99mw-data-center-proposed-in-kern-county-california/
Sponsored by
To:
Kern County Board of Supervisors
From:
[Your Name]
We're a coalition of youth, working families, small businesses and nonprofits, and we're calling on you to stop the wave of data centers being pushed into Kern County without our consent.
Right now, two massive data centers are proposed on opposite ends of our county, and residents warn they're only the first of many. In western Kern, an oil company wants to build a 600,000 square foot AI data center at Elk Hills, powered by its own natural gas plant, a mile and a half from the nearest homes. In eastern Kern, a developer wants to build in Inyokern with 40 diesel backup generators and pull up to 16 million gallons of water a year from a groundwater basin the state already classifies as critically overdrafted. This is not a coincidence. Tech and energy companies are targeting Kern because they think our communities are too poor, too rural and too tired to fight back.
They're wrong.
Kern County families already breathe some of the dirtiest air in the nation. Our farmworker communities already ration water in a drought. We will not accept projects that burn more gas, drain more groundwater and lock our county into decades of pollution so that corporations elsewhere can profit off AI. And we won't be sold with promises of jobs that disappear once construction ends.
We're not against technology. We're against being sacrificed for it.
We demand:
1. Deny the pending permits. Reject the conditional use permit for the Elk Hills data center and reject the Inyokern project's attempt to skip full state review.
2. Pass a countywide moratorium on new data center approvals until Kern County adopts a data center ordinance with enforceable standards on water, energy, air quality and noise.
3. Full environmental review, no exceptions. Every data center proposal must go through complete CEQA review with independent analysis of water, air and grid impacts. No exemptions, no shortcuts.
4. Real community say. Public hearings in the affected communities, not just Bakersfield, with Spanish language access and evening times working families can actually attend.
5. No fossil-fuel-powered data centers. Kern County should not approve any data center that runs on gas while our kids grow up with asthma.
Our communities deserve clean air, secure water and a real voice in what gets built next to our homes. Protect our communities, don't pollute them.
In Solidarity,
No Data Centers in Kern County Coalition