The Midwest has more than 600 data centers, with hundreds in development. Light pollution rules would protect migrating birds and nighttime pollinators.

By Héctor Alejandro Arzate, Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk

When it comes to data centers, Vayujeet Gokhale has but one ask.

“If you are going to have lights on at night, then let’s do it in a responsible way,” he said.

Gokhale is a physics professor at Truman State University and a board member for DarkSky Missouri — the state chapter for an international non-profit aimed at reducing artificial lighting at night. The broader organization has taken a similar stance.

Gokhale acknowledges that his cause might not be the first or second priority for most communities. It might not even be third, he said. Yet, he argues that it may be the easiest of environmental problems to solve.

“You don’t need to light up the place for these computers and memory banks to work. They’ll still work even if it’s completely dark,” Gokhale said. “You need light for certain other things, but you can minimize the pollution without affecting the quality of the data center product. You can’t make that same case with water and energy.”

Rather than allowing data centers and the companies running them to operate their lighting on an individual basis, Gokhale said he wants to see his organization’s principles for responsible outdoor lighting get adopted. This would include installing lighting that is pointed downwards, motion detectors so that light is only in use when needed, and warm-colored lights to reduce unnecessary brightness. 

These kinds of deliberate choices might benefit the data center companies by reducing their spending on lighting while improving safety and security at their facilities, according to Gokhale.

“Many times, in these environmental issues, pollution-related issues, it’s a zero-sum game. You have to give up something in order to gain something. Not so with light pollution. It’s a win-win,” Gokhale said.

Dark skies for humans, birds and insects

The United States has the most data centers in the world. More than 3,000 are already up and running, as demand for infrastructure that can power artificial intelligence and store digital information continues to grow. Three-quarters of the data centers planned are in the South or Midwest, according to a report from the Pew Research Center. 

Missouri currently has 95 active data centers, according to Data Center Map, the company that supplied data for the Pew report. 

New projects in the state include a $15 billion investment in Montgomery County from Google that was announced back in May. At the time, Gov. Mike Kehoe touted the move as an economic win for the state. “This project represents more than infrastructure — it’s an investment in Missouri families, communities, and long-term opportunity,” said Kehoe in a press release at the time.

With regulations in place, Gokhale believes the U.S will be better equipped to preserve the night skies for human observers and wildlife — such as migrating birds or insect species that work as night time pollinators. While many people might first think of butterflies and hummingbirds as pollinators, nocturnal insects play a key role for both local ecosystems and agriculture. 

“A lot of the pollinators are actually active at night,” Gokhale said. “If you have too much artificial light, they get confused or disoriented.”

The job of a pollinator is an important one, said Nicole Flowers-Kimmerle, a horticulture educator for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Extension. About one out of every three bites of food produced in the U.S. is dependent on insect or animal pollinators, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Artificial light at night not only disrupts a nighttime pollinator’s ability to navigate, it also changes their feeding and mating behaviors, she said. “So if we see that we’re having a declining number of moths, then that’s going to affect pollination, but it also affects the food web,” she said.

A decline in moths and other nighttime pollinators could impact the bird species that rely on them as a source for food. That’s a problem that is further compounded since many migrating birds are themselves affected by artificial light pollution at night, according to Murry Burgess, an assistant professor at Mississippi State University who specializes in ornithology and urban ecology. In recent decades, scientists have found that some migratory birds use the stars as a compass that helps orient their travel paths.

“So with light pollution, it’s really obscuring the stars and throwing them off course, making them expend more energy kind of circling around trying to find where they’re supposed to go,” said Burgess. “That’s when you start to see a lot of window collisions and increased mortality as well.”

The Mississippi River Basin, in particular, is a key flyway for approximately half of all North American bird species, which need to travel as far as South America and back each year. Those include song birds, waterfowl and even raptor species.

“It’s really important to preserve dark sky areas, the same way that you would have a wildlife refuge, like the sky is part of the environment, part of their habitat,” she said.

Like other environmental advocates, Burgess agrees that the harm from artificial lighting at night should be mitigated in a responsible way. She said that unlike the larger issues surrounding data center developments, such as land usage and environmental pollution, lighting could be less complicated to solve.

“With light pollution, it really can be as simple as just turning off the lights or changing the types of lights that you use,” Burgess said.

Regulations along the river?

Throughout the Mississippi River Basin, local communities are picking sides in the battle over data centers.

In January, elected officials for the city of Warrenton, Missouri, voted unanimously to approve a data center plan that would include two buildings — each of them four times larger than a Costco warehouse or Walmart supercenter — along Interstate-70. Yet, not all Missouri communities are eager to see these high-profile projects in their town and counties. Earlier this summer, the St. Charles County Council passed a six-month moratorium on large-scale data center development. On the other end of the state, voters in the city of Independence have recalled a number of city council members for approving a data center’s construction with tax breaks. 

With both approval and pushback for data centers growing across the state, legislators have tried to address key issues for their constituents. Like Rep. Colin Wellenkamp — a Republican for St. Charles County — who introduced House Bill 3362 in the previous legislative session. The bill sought to regulate data center electricity usage by making them pay for costs, as well as any necessary power grid upgrades. It also would have created a permit requirement for high water usage from the state Department of Natural Resources, which does not currently regulate data centers or even have a standard definition for such businesses. 

“The AI economy is growing in Missouri which is a good thing as long as Missouri communities are protected and empowered to lead the way,” said Wellenkamp in a late-June Facebook post.

Ultimately, none of the legislation aimed at regulating Missouri’s data center advanced, nor did they address environmental advocates’ concerns for light pollution and how it could affect local wildlife.

Gokhale, the Truman State professor, said he’s not in favor of data centers, but he’s not exactly opposed to them, either. He just has a lot of questions.

“At the most fundamental level, we need to define what these things are, what their purpose is,” Gokhale said.

Gokhale said a first step toward regulations would be to categorize data centers beyond the vagueness of artificial intelligence and cloud storage. To him, the need is urgent. More and more data centers will spring up around the country — and with them, an increased concern for limited land and water resources from local communities.

“This has to be done by the people, by council members, by politicians, and effectively enacted into some sort of policy,” he said.

This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.

Note to eds.: This story can be localized by state. See data below or follow this link to the source.  FULL STORY TEXT: HEADLINE: As data centers expand, advocates call for regulations on lights  DEK: The Midwest has more than 600 data centers, with hundreds in development. Light pollution rules would protect migrating birds and nighttime pollinators.  BYLINE: Héctor Alejandro Arzate, Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk When it comes to data centers, Vayujeet Gokhale has but one ask. “If you are going to have lights on at night, then let’s do it in a responsible way,” he said. Gokhale is a physics professor at Truman State University and a board member for DarkSky Missouri — the state chapter for an international non-profit aimed at reducing artificial lighting at night. The broader organization has taken a similar stance. Gokhale acknowledges that his cause might not be the first or second priority for most communities. It might not even be third, he said. Yet, he argues that it may be the easiest of environmental problems to solve. “You don’t need to light up the place for these computers and memory banks to work. They’ll still work even if it’s completely dark,” Gokhale said. “You need light for certain other things, but you can minimize the pollution without affecting the quality of the data center product. You can’t make that same case with water and energy.” Rather than allowing data centers and the companies running them to operate their lighting on an individual basis, Gokhale said he wants to see his organization’s principles for responsible outdoor lighting get adopted. This would include installing lighting that is pointed downwards, motion detectors so that light is only in use when needed, and warm-colored lights to reduce unnecessary brightness.  These kinds of deliberate choices might benefit the data center companies by reducing their spending on lighting while improving safety and security at their facilities, according to Gokhale. “Many times, in these environmental issues, pollution-related issues, it’s a zero-sum game. You have to give up something in order to gain something. Not so with light pollution. It’s a win-win,” Gokhale said. Dark skies for humans, birds and insects The United States has the most data centers in the world. More than 3,000 are already up and running, as demand for infrastructure that can power artificial intelligence and store digital information continues to grow. Three-quarters of the data centers planned are in the South or Midwest, according to a report from the Pew Research Center.  Missouri currently has 95 active data centers, according to Data Center Map, the company that supplied data for the Pew report.  New projects in the state include a $15 billion investment in Montgomery County from Google that was announced back in May. At the time, Gov. Mike Kehoe touted the move as an economic win for the state. “This project represents more than infrastructure — it’s an investment in Missouri families, communities, and long-term opportunity,” said Kehoe in a press release at the time. With regulations in place, Gokhale believes the U.S will be better equipped to preserve the night skies for human observers and wildlife — such as migrating birds or insect species that work as night time pollinators. While many people might first think of butterflies and hummingbirds as pollinators, nocturnal insects play a key role for both local ecosystems and agriculture.  “A lot of the pollinators are actually active at night,” Gokhale said. “If you have too much artificial light, they get confused or disoriented.” The job of a pollinator is an important one, said Nicole Flowers-Kimmerle, a horticulture educator for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Extension. About one out of every three bites of food produced in the U.S. is dependent on insect or animal pollinators, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Artificial light at night not only disrupts a nighttime pollinator’s ability to navigate, it also changes their feeding and mating behaviors, she said. “So if we see that we’re having a declining number of moths, then that’s going to affect pollination, but it also affects the food web,” she said. A decline in moths and other nighttime pollinators could impact the bird species that rely on them as a source for food. That’s a problem that is further compounded since many migrating birds are themselves affected by artificial light pollution at night, according to Murry Burgess, an assistant professor at Mississippi State University who specializes in ornithology and urban ecology. In recent decades, scientists have found that some migratory birds use the stars as a compass that helps orient their travel paths. “So with light pollution, it’s really obscuring the stars and throwing them off course, making them expend more energy kind of circling around trying to find where they’re supposed to go,” said Burgess. “That’s when you start to see a lot of window collisions and increased mortality as well.” The Mississippi River Basin, in particular, is a key flyway for approximately half of all North American bird species, which need to travel as far as South America and back each year. Those include song birds, waterfowl and even raptor species. “It’s really important to preserve dark sky areas, the same way that you would have a wildlife refuge, like the sky is part of the environment, part of their habitat,” she said. Like other environmental advocates, Burgess agrees that the harm from artificial lighting at night should be mitigated in a responsible way. She said that unlike the larger issues surrounding data center developments, such as land usage and environmental pollution, lighting could be less complicated to solve. “With light pollution, it really can be as simple as just turning off the lights or changing the types of lights that you use,” Burgess said. Regulations along the river? Throughout the Mississippi River Basin, local communities are picking sides in the battle over data centers. In January, elected officials for the city of Warrenton, Missouri, voted unanimously to approve a data center plan that would include two buildings — each of them four times larger than a Costco warehouse or Walmart supercenter — along Interstate-70. Yet, not all Missouri communities are eager to see these high-profile projects in their town and counties. Earlier this summer, the St. Charles County Council passed a six-month moratorium on large-scale data center development. On the other end of the state, voters in the city of Independence have recalled a number of city council members for approving a data center’s construction with tax breaks.  With both approval and pushback for data centers growing across the state, legislators have tried to address key issues for their constituents. Like Rep. Colin Wellenkamp — a Republican for St. Charles County — who introduced House Bill 3362 in the previous legislative session. The bill sought to regulate data center electricity usage by making them pay for costs, as well as any necessary power grid upgrades. It also would have created a permit requirement for high water usage from the state Department of Natural Resources, which does not currently regulate data centers or even have a standard definition for such businesses.  “The AI economy is growing in Missouri which is a good thing as long as Missouri communities are protected and empowered to lead the way,” said Wellenkamp in a late-June Facebook post. Ultimately, none of the legislation aimed at regulating Missouri’s data center advanced, nor did they address environmental advocates’ concerns for light pollution and how it could affect local wildlife. Gokhale, the Truman State professor, said he’s not in favor of data centers, but he’s not exactly opposed to them, either. He just has a lot of questions. “At the most fundamental level, we need to define what these things are, what their purpose is,” Gokhale said. Gokhale said a first step toward regulations would be to categorize data centers beyond the vagueness of artificial intelligence and cloud storage. To him, the need is urgent. More and more data centers will spring up around the country — and with them, an increased concern for limited land and water resources from local communities. “This has to be done by the people, by council members, by politicians, and effectively enacted into some sort of policy,” he said. This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation. Localization info Number of data centers by stateSource: Data Center Map State, Data CentersTexas 537North Dakota 23Virginia 674Georgia 276New York 135Oregon 135Illinois 242Washington 117Kentucky 56California 296South Carolina 48Missouri 95Minnesota 81Michigan 79Arizona 160Pennsylvania 174Ohio 240Massachusetts 40Mississippi 25New Jersey 66Florida 111Maryland 58Oklahoma 48Nebraska 37Arkansas 12Kansas 39Connecticut 52Tennessee 65Louisiana 23Colorado 60Wyoming 31District of Columbia 6North Carolina 97Maine 11Iowa 116Indiana 125Wisconsin 53Nevada 76Idaho 27Utah 48Alabama 45New Mexico 22Montana 30West Virginia 10South Dakota 10Alaska 8Hawaii 8Delaware 19New Hampshire 10Rhode Island 7Vermont 3