I recently moved to Reno, and I was driving in the neighborhood along Keystone, when I looked to my right. The new Data Center being built next to the Truckee River and very close to downtown. On weekends, I love to tube along the Truckee in the summers, so it made me start to wonder what will this area look like in the next couple of years.
Data centers have quickly become one of Nevada’s major policy conversations. It has united everyone, and while much of the debate has focused on electricity demand, water use, utility rates, tax abatements and economic development.
But another issue deserves attention: public health.
A report highlighted by the Environmental Protection Network (EPN) examines the potential health consequences of the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence and the data centers needed to support it. The central concern is not simply what happens inside a data center. It is what happens when enormous new electricity demand requires additional power generation.
THE BIG PICTURE
Data centers require extraordinary amounts of electricity to operate servers, networking equipment and cooling systems.
As AI increases electricity demand, utilities and policymakers face a basic question:
Where will that additional power come from?
If additional demand results in greater reliance on natural gas, coal or diesel backup generation, researchers warn that data-center expansion could contribute to additional air pollution and associated health impacts.
This means the environmental footprint of a data center cannot necessarily be measured by looking only at the facility itself.
THE POWER PLANT MAY BE THE BIGGER STORY
One of the most significant findings highlighted by EPN is that the majority of modeled health impacts associated with data centers may occur through electricity generation rather than at the data-center campus itself.
Research cited in the report estimated that more than 90% of modeled health impacts came from the power plants supplying electricity to data centers.
That distinction matters.
A data center can operate in one community while the power plant producing its electricity—and the pollution associated with that generation—is located somewhere else.
The question therefore becomes bigger than:
Where are we building data centers?
Nevada also needs to ask:
What are we building to power them?
POTENTIAL PUBLIC-HEALTH COSTS
Researchers cited by EPN modeled potentially significant national health consequences if data-center electricity demand continues growing while relying heavily on fossil-fuel generation.
Their estimates include increased asthma symptoms, respiratory and cardiovascular impacts, premature deaths and billions of dollars in associated health costs.
These numbers are projections based on particular assumptions about data-center growth, electricity generation and emissions—not counts of health impacts already occurring.
Still, they highlight an important policy consideration: the costs associated with data-center development may extend beyond electricity infrastructure and utility bills.
Some costs may ultimately appear in health-care systems, families and communities.
AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE QUESTION
Where pollution occurs matters.
Communities located near power plants and other energy infrastructure may experience environmental and health consequences associated with electricity demand generated somewhere else.
That raises questions of environmental justice:
Who receives the economic benefits?
Who pays for the infrastructure?
Who experiences the pollution?
Who has a voice before these decisions are made?
These questions are particularly important when affected communities already experience disproportionate environmental or economic burdens.
WHY THIS MATTERS FOR NEVADA
Nevada’s rapidly developing data-center debate has already expanded beyond local zoning decisions.
Policymakers and communities are discussing electricity demand, water resources, transmission and generation infrastructure, utility rates, tax incentives, public lands and the appropriate role of state and local government.
Public health belongs in that conversation as well.
As Nevada evaluates additional data-center development and the energy infrastructure needed to support it, policymakers could examine:
• How much additional electricity will proposed facilities require?
• Where will that electricity come from?
• Will additional fossil-fuel generation be necessary?
• What emissions could result from new generation and backup power systems?
• Which communities would experience those emissions?
• Are cumulative environmental and health impacts being evaluated?
• How will infrastructure costs be allocated between data centers and other ratepayers?
• Do affected communities have meaningful opportunities to participate before projects are approved?
THE POLICY QUESTION FOR 2027
Nevada does not have to treat economic development, affordable electricity, environmental stewardship and public health as separate conversations.
They intersect.
As lawmakers prepare for the 2027 Nevada Legislative Session, the larger question is not simply whether Nevada should accommodate growing demand for data centers.
It is how Nevada establishes rules for that growth—and how policymakers account for the full costs and benefits associated with it.
A LUTHERAN LENS
Lutheran advocacy calls us to consider both care for creation and care for our neighbor.
Technology itself is not the only question. We also consider how decisions about technology affect people, communities and the resources we share.
When evaluating Nevada’s expanding AI infrastructure, that means asking who benefits, who carries the burdens, and whether the health and well-being of our neighbors are being adequately considered.
The cost of powering AI is not measured only in megawatts and dollars.
It can also be measured in water, air quality, utility bills, climate impacts and community health.
Those costs deserve a place in Nevada’s conversation.
LEAN | Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada
Source: Environmental Protection Network / Safer Not Sicker, “The Hidden Health Costs of AI Data Centers.”
