Environmental activist Erin Brockovich is taking on a new fight: demanding greater transparency from data center operators. The activist, whose legal battle against Pacific Gas & Electric was dramatized in the 2000 film starring Julia Roberts, has launched a website featuring an interactive map that tracks data centers across the United States. The project, still described as a work in progress, relies on reports submitted by community members living near these facilities.
Brockovich put out a call for submissions in April, asking residents to share issues they had experienced with nearby data centers. The response was overwhelming—nearly 4,000 submissions came in within the first month alone. According to a Substack post she published, the most frequent complaint wasn't about noise pollution, water consumption, or rising electricity bills. Instead, it was a single recurring demand: transparency.
The activist clarified that her campaign isn't targeting data centers or artificial intelligence development broadly. Rather, she's calling out specific practices her documentation reveals: projects that are announced only after permits have already been approved, developers who fail to respond to community inquiries, and local officials who sign non-disclosure agreements before residents even learn a project is being considered. Brockovich's map aims to make these patterns visible to the public.