Portland & Eugene ban data center NDAs. Now let’s do even better!

This week, Eugene and Portland city councils voted to ban (or strongly discourage) non-disclosure agreements with data center developers. After more than 70 people showed up to the Eugene City Council meeting on Monday, September 14 – overflowing the overflow room – the City Manager signed an order directing all 1,500 city employees not to sign NDAs related to data centers. In Portland, the City Council voted unanimously to urge the city administrator to refuse NDAs and to explore a moratorium. 

This is awesome. We love to see solidarity between Portland and Eugene – the two primary cities where Breach Collective is based, and where we participated in organizing the turnout that helped push both city councils to pass these bans. NDAs have been a critical tool used by the tech industry to sneak multi-billion-dollar data center construction projects through local government without disclosing them until after the fact to the residents who will ultimately be impacted by them. Portland and Eugene have opted to uphold transparency. 

But transparency is not enough. We need moratoriums. 

These facilities are nightmares for our climate, our health, and our bank accounts. Portland’s KPTV reports that “data centers now consume 5.6% of Oregon’s electricity” and “the aggressive buildout of facilities across the state has corresponded with a 50% spike in electric bills for Portland General Electric and Pacific Power customers.” On top of their water and electrical consumption, they emit air and noise pollution, and their costs are put on ratepayers while their profits go to out-of-state tech companies. 

In light of these injustices of the data center boom, more than 100 cities across the country, including Denver, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, Monterey Park, Atlanta, and Hillsboro and Woodburn in Oregon, have implemented some version of a moratorium on data centers. We want Portland and Eugene to join them. 

We know that the vast majority of voters oppose data centers. We know that they harm our communities. We know that we’re the ones that end up paying for them while the tech industry gets rich(er). We know that both Portland and Eugene have committed to “exploring” a moratorium, and that Governor Kotek has publicly stated that she supports one. And while we celebrate that Portland and Eugene have taken a firm step in the right direction, we know that there is no time to lose in fully prohibiting these projects. We will continue to urge Portland, Eugene, and other cities across Oregon to pass moratoriums. And we will continue to work with our partners across the state to support the three-year statewide moratorium on new data centers that has been proposed by several Oregon lawmakers.