Highlights
- Jocelyn Anaya Galvan, an outreach specialist for Menlo Spark, writes in the Arizona Capitol Times that her father is building a data center the size of 71 football fields in north Phoenix.
- Latinos made up 23% of heat-related deaths in Maricopa County last year and 52% of the construction industry workforce, according to the op-ed.
- An ASU study cited in the piece found waste heat from data centers can raise temperatures in adjacent Phoenix neighborhoods by four degrees.
- Gov. Katie Hobbs has proposed ending a $38.5 million state tax incentive for data centers; Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego has backed that position.
A south Phoenix construction worker's family is absorbing the costs of Arizona's data center boom in real time, according to an op-ed published Friday in the Arizona Capitol Times by Jocelyn Anaya Galvan, an outreach specialist for Menlo Spark, a California-based environmental nonprofit.
Galvan writes that her father is part of a crew building a data center the size of 71 football fields in north Phoenix. The crew consists mostly of Latino men over the age of 50, she writes, and her father does not receive health insurance through his employer despite working on what she describes as a multibillion-dollar project. His electric bill reached $500 last summer, she writes, driven by the urban heat island in south Phoenix.
The piece cites figures showing Latinos made up 23% of heat-related deaths in Maricopa County last year and 52% of the construction industry workforce. A new ASU study, she writes, found that waste heat from data centers can raise temperatures in adjacent Phoenix neighborhoods by four degrees. Residents in Ahwatukee, Surprise, and Tucson have raised concerns over extreme water usage, air quality contamination, and rising neighborhood temperatures tied to data center developments, the op-ed states.
2024 was Arizona's hottest year on record, followed by 2025 as the second-hottest, according to the piece. This March was also Phoenix's warmest March ever, Galvan writes.
Gov. Katie Hobbs has proposed ending a state tax incentive for data centers worth $38.5 million, a move backed by Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, according to the op-ed. Galvan calls for enforceable heat protections for outdoor workers, stronger renewable energy investment, and federal legislation such as the Energy Bills Relief Act to lower energy costs for working families.
Galvan's father remains on the job site.
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- azcapitoltimes.com retrieved 26/06/2026 20:08
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 26/06/2026 20:08. Every claim traces to a source.
