August 24, 2025
Alison Kuznitz | State House News Service
Developers in the coming months could break ground on a western Massachusetts data center campus where investments could total $4 billion, a project buoyed by a new state tax incentive.
But as officials iron out regulatory frameworks, some advocates urged the state on Thursday to strengthen environmental protections surrounding the facilities.
A 2024 economic development law included a sales and use tax exemption for qualified data centers, which applies to equipment, software, electricity usage, and construction costs tied to the building, renovation or refurbishment of the facilities.
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Only two advocates spoke at the hearing, warning the proposals lack sufficient environmental safeguards.
Dominique Agnew, an attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, asked the state to consider additional provisions that “prioritize energy efficiency, public protection, decreased resource usage and workforce development.”
“This proposed regulation makes no mention of efficiency measures or climate-related disclosures like energy and water usage. Regulations should require robust disclosures and reporting of these and other environmental protection metrics,” Agnew said. “Regulations should also address how the executive office will monitor the data centers’ environmental impacts, such as its water usage, air quality and natural habitat impacts, and electric grid system impacts, as data centers are known for intense energy usage from grid electricity, as well as back-up gas or diesel generators.”
Tristan Thomas, director of policy for the nonprofit Alternatives for Community and Environment, said the proposed regulations should be rejected since they “lack basic safeguards for our environment, public health and our economy.”
“Absent new provisions around renewable energy requirements, demand response, environmental assessments and reporting, water use, air pollution and more, our economic strategies will directly contradict our climate goals and harm public health,” Thomas said.
Highlighting the health risks, Thomas pointed to a 2024 study from Caltech and UC Riverside that found air pollution from AI data centers could cause up to 1,300 premature deaths annually by 2030. Meanwhile, a Good Jobs First study released in April found that at least 10 states had lost more than $100 million annually in tax revenues from data centers.
Thomas urged a “transparent economic analysis” of the total cost of data centers.