No Desert Data Center Coalition at DGT

by Carolyn Classen, blogger

“Please join us for a discussion of Project Blue and beyond with the No Desert Data Center Coalition leadership in a panel format on December 8th at Noon via Zoom.

Registration is Required for this Event:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/IlUWLsnsQFy5tv64V9e54w

The No Desert Data Center Coalition is a leaderful coalition of Pima County residents opposed to extractive industries here in Pima County. We are business owners, union members, data scientists, medical professionals, Indigenous land advocates, photographers, researchers, environmentalists, artists and writers, teachers and students, parents and youth, community and labor organizers, and concerned citizens. We are volunteers organizing to defeat shortsighted and unjust, extractive economic development.

Though we came together in opposition to the proposed Project Blue data center project, we work together for a proactive vision for what sustainable economic development can look like. We want more numerous and smaller projects that our community members can buy into for a return on investment that benefit our neighbors.

We also recognize that the main reason this data center proposal continues despite our city council’s rejection is that our power company is a private corporation. We support the Public Power campaign for a publicly owned electric utility.

We fight at the intersection of many causes. These include but are not limited to: public health, water security, energy equity, sustainable economic development, tribal consultation and sovereignty, demilitarization, immigrant justice, environmental impacts, and governance transparency. We are pro-democracy, anti-fascist, and opposed to genocide.

We are unified in our vision of the future that is sustainable, healthy, and resilient. We organize to inform decision makers and pressure them to prioritize long-term community investments over short-term economic gain. We act because we believe in the power of community, and the sacredness of natural resources. We care deeply about the land we call home.

Our coalition believes people have the power and our interconnected struggles catalyze our commitment to a just, equitable, and healthy desert community. Our coalition ensures extractive interests will always have to contend with the community.

This work extends across Tucson, Pima County, and the Santa Cruz River Watershed as a whole. This work does not end at borders but expands to support neighboring communities in the Sonoran Desert.

We ask that community members not be discouraged by false inevitabilities. Our coalition completely rejects the “inevitability mindset” that has scarred Tucson with Urban Renewal, TCE poisoning, and the death of a free-flowing Santa Cruz River. Our coalition completely rejects corporate intimidation. We urge our neighbors to stand firm in their demands for just governance, transparency, healthy communities in the Sonoran Desert, and well-paying local jobs that are sustainable.”

Carolyn’s note: Pima County Bd. of Supervisors voted in June, 2025 in favor of data centers, by 3-2 vote with Supervisors Rex Scott (D), Matt Heinz (D) and Steve Christy (R) in favor; Supervisors Jen Allen (D) and Andres Cano (D) against. Tucson City Council (all Ds) voted unanimously against Project Blue data center recently in August, 2025.