Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Matt Garman has announced that the company will no longer utilize nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) when engaging with government agencies for new data center construction approvals.
Garman’s declaration was a brief mention within an extensive blog post, through which he aimed to counter widespread public suspicion of data centers and advocate for their positive contributions to local communities.
NDAs are a significant factor contributing to the broader opposition against data centers. For example, environmental activist Erin Brockovich recently highlighted that the primary complaint she receives regarding data centers is a lack of transparency, with projects often following a predictable pattern: “projects announced after permits are already secured, developers who don’t return calls, local officials who signed NDAs before their neighbors knew a project was being considered.”
This public outcry has led to New York imposing a one-year moratorium on permits for large data centers, and Garman noted that over 100 data center moratoriums are currently being deliberated across the United States.
“If these measures are enacted, the U.S. could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations,” Garman contended. “As a country, we can’t afford to find ourselves in that position.”
Garman also sought to refute what he identified as four major misconceptions about data centers: that they consume excessive water, drive up electricity costs, generate substantial pollution, and offer no benefits to their surrounding communities.
Citing an Amazon report detailing its own water consumption, Garman stated that “direct data center water usage” accounts for only 0.5% of total industrial water usage in the United States, which is “orders of magnitude less than golf courses, almond farming, and many other industries.”