Amazon responds to data center backlash, says it no longer uses NDAs

Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said the company has stopped using nondisclosure agreements in its dealings with government agencies as it seeks approval to build new data centers, according to a blog post reported by TechCrunch.

The statement was one sentence in a longer post in which Garman pushed back against widespread suspicion of data centers and argued they benefit communities. Nondisclosure agreements are a significant piece of the broader data center backlash; environmental activist Erin Brockovich recently said the top complaint she hears about data centers is transparency.

Garman said more than 100 data center moratoriums are currently being considered across the United States, after New York announced a one-year moratorium on permits for large data centers. He claimed that if such measures are enacted, "the U.S. could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations."

Garman also addressed what he described as four myths: that data centers consume too much water, raise electricity costs, emit enormous pollution, and provide no community benefits. Citing an Amazon report, he said direct data center water consumption accounts for 0.5% of all U.S. industrial water usage. Nvidia recently said it is eliminating "pretty much all water usage" inside a data center; the report noted such claims appear to ignore broader water usage from electricity generation and chip manufacturing, and that scientists say independent study is needed because no federal or state requirements govern how tech companies report this data.

On electricity rates, Garman said they have risen only in some states with large numbers of data centers and blamed aging grids. An independent watchdog recently said data centers were the main culprit behind a 76% year-over-year price increase on America's largest electrical grid.

On pollution, Garman said critics focus on maximum permitted levels; a planned Amazon data center in Texas is permitted to release 33 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, more than any other power plant in the United States. He said data center generators are idle 99.9% of the time. Garman also said Amazon has contributed more than $1 billion over three years to U.S. communities with a meaningful data center presence.