AI Position Statement

POSITION

The Community Environmental Council is committed to a rapid and equitable transition to a fossil-free future, guided by the values of climate and environmental justice. We recognize that artificial intelligence is an increasingly significant presence in that landscape.

The debate about AI is often reduced to a personal question about adoption, however there are also larger structural questions that we view as critical: where data centers are built, who bears their environmental and community costs, and how it is governed.

CEC has joined more than 130 organizations in endorsing Within Bounds: Limiting AI's Environmental Impact. The statement demands that AI infrastructure run on 100% renewable energy — not by displacing existing clean energy or substituting carbon offsets, but by adding genuine clean capacity. It calls for limits on data center energy, water, and land consumption; supply chains held to the same renewable standards; meaningful community voice before infrastructure is sited and built; and full public disclosure of AI's environmental footprint across its lifecycle. We believe these are the right demands for this moment.

We make this endorsement as a starting point. AI is moving faster than our collective understanding of what it costs and who pays the price. We commit to revisiting our position as the landscape evolves.