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The Brief

The most important stories for you to know today
  • Bob Goldberg's plant-based origin story
    An older white man with white hair in a ponytail wearing a dark blue and green flannel shirt and jeans leans against a refrigerated vegetable display section full of colorful produce.
    Owner Bob Goldberg at Follow Your Heart Market & Cafe in Canoga Park.

    Topline:

    Bob Goldberg co-founded the West Valley’s favorite veggie diner and market in his halcyon hippie days of the early 1970s. It was here that he invented Vegenaise, and built the infrastructure to eventually become a leading manufacturer of plant-based foods.

    Why it matters: Bob and company were among the earliest innovators of popular plant-based cooking in the US. They sought ways to make tasty plant-based alternatives to standard staples of American cuisine. And Bob made it possible for the masses to eat really delicious vegan sandwiches.

    Why now: As Bob retires from his manufacturing business, he has more time at the cafe where it all started. Meanwhile high-end development is coming to the West Valley, and Bob wants to be a force to maintain Canoga Park’s vibrant mixed-income character in the coming decade.

    If you have lunch at Follow Your Heart vegan cafe on Sherman Way in Canoga Park, you may see a friendly-looking guy hovering around. He’s there for a few hours every day, doing a little bit of everything.

    “It’s kind of my job to eat different things on the menu to ensure consistency. One cook teaches another cook and recipes totally change.”

    Take note — that man is not just the food taster. He’s Bob Goldberg, now a wise elder to the vegan food scene in Los Angeles. He began Follow Your Heart with friends in 1970, as a vegetarian hippie hangout in the valley.

    A black and white photo of four light skinned young men from the 70's. Each have long hair and bushy long beards and are smiling at the camera, wearing light colored T shirts and shirts and jeans
    Bob Goldberg and his partners
    (
    Courtesy Follow Your Heart
    )

    Today, more than 50 years later, it’s a vegan grocery store and diner, with a college town food co-op vibe, selling plant-based diner food: sandwiches, pot pies, chili cheese fries. And even more importantly, Goldberg has had a massive impact on plant-based eating, creating Vegenaise and starting the Follow Your Heart and Earth Island brands.

    The Follow Your Heart cafe first started as a juice bar in the back of Johnny Weissmuller’s American Natural Foods on Owensmouth. Weissmuller was an Olympic gold medalist and star of the Tarzan movies.

    In 1973, Goldberg, along with partners Paul Lewin, Spencer Windbiel and Michael Besançon, bought out the market, and got rid of all the meat and dairy products.

    “When we first started, this strip was still Antique Row — we’d get thrifted plates from the Salvation Army,” he remembers.

    The place soon attracted a loyal following, with people traveling long distances to the West Valley, because back then, as Goldberg says, "vegetarian places were few and far between."

    By 1976, they outgrew the store and moved into a former butcher shop, which is the current Sherman Way location.

    Questioning authority

    "I grew up in a family of grocers,” says Goldberg. His grandfather Sam Kapitanoff opened Crystal Foods shortly after the turn of the century when he arrived in Beloit, Wisconsin from Eastern Europe — “very New Agey name,” he laughs. He’d visit the store as a kid with his parents from Chicago, an hour-and-a-half away.

    The other side of Goldberg’s family was in the model airplane kits industry. In those days, Carl Goldberg Products was a hugely inspiring company for would-be aeronautical engineers. However, model planes later fell out of popularity in the 70's with the emergence of the space program. “I was a national champion as a child,” he says with a smile.

    A man with medium-dark skin tone wearing a blue shirt and hat stands next to an older man with white hair in a ponytail and a blue and green flannel. They are in a large dining room with wooden chairs and tables.
    Chef Proof Fujiyama-Ahira and owner Bob Goldberg at Follow Your Heart Market & Cafe in Canoga Park.
    (
    Brian Feinzimer
    /
    LAist
    )

    In 1967, Goldberg got drafted into the army. Initially, he thought he’d have to travel overseas, but he received a last minute change of orders to join the Army Band. (Goldberg had played trumpet since he was 10 and studied music at Indiana University).

    Goldberg says he wasn’t yet critical of the war in Vietnam. “It was a bad time — a turbulent time. But I was on board for everything. I didn't question authority ... that came later.”

    In the barracks he was assigned to a room with one other guy who had the "opposite of my background.” He’d been in trouble with the law and a judge had given him the choice to go to jail or enlist. His barrack-mate showed him something rolled up in aluminum foil — he didn't know what it was. "I'd never seen marijuana,” he says. They went into a closet and got high.

    A moment later Bob remembers sitting down on his bed and thinking “‘Everything I know was wrong’ — it just hit me. I remember an overwhelming feeling that I'd been lied to.”

    In the Army Band he’d travel to midwestern states playing “a lot of parades,” Bob pauses, “but also Taps at a lot of funerals.” This experience made him see the impact of what war can do, which led to his embrace of meat-less eating.

    “I became vegetarian for moral reasons. I was against unnecessary killing. And sometimes the practice of killing animals can lead to the killing of people.”

    Out of the Army, in 1969, Goldberg drove across the country to Los Angeles. He spent the first few weeks on a buddy’s couch in Woodland Hills before finding a place up the street from Johnny Weissmuller’s.

    Goldberg was glad to find somewhere he could get camaraderie and vegetarian food. “I was meeting my people and getting an education in living in a more peaceful way.”

    Two jars contain a creamy substance. The one on the left has a blue label which says Follow Your Heart 'vegenaise' in an orange rectangle. The one on the right has a purple label and says Follow Your Heart 'vegenaise' Grapeseed oil. Below both jars are the words 'the fresh, natural dressing'
    A promotional image for Vegenaise that shows the product when it was first introduced in wide release in 1995.
    (
    Courtesy Follow Your Heart
    )

    The birth of Vegenaise

    Their customers included many seeking a more spiritual parth, and would suggest books, which they’d sell in the corner of the shop. The Whole Earth Catalog, books on environmentalism or eastern philosophy, Hindu- buddhism, the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

    Michael Besançon was a follower of a guru whose followers’ culinary practice excluded meat, fowl, and eggs (though dairy was okay). So the menu at Follow Your Heart applied that approach to their familiar diner fare.

    But they wanted to serve that part of the community that didn’t eat eggs. And without mayonnaise, the cafe’s sandwiches were less than appealing. “They still needed a lube," laughs Goldberg.

    So they set about finding a mayo alternative. They went through lots of options before stumbling upon a guy who’d created a product called “Lecinaise” which was supposedly an egg-free substance made from lecithin, which helped emulsify lipids.

    They began using it in the restaurant. But a few months later they started hearing that there were actually eggs in this “Lecinaise.” Eventually, Goldberg says “the guy got busted by the California Department of Food and Agriculture — he was soaking jars of regular mayonnaise to get the labels off and then putting his own label on top!”

    They immediately had to look for other options. But when they approached food manufacturers, they were told an egg-free mayo alternative wasn’t possible.

    So Goldberg started experimenting. What could be a good plant-based solution? He tried mixing various oils and fats trying to find the best way to make them cohere. “It took a lot of trials, my whole fridge [was] full of various stages,” he says.

    He finally came up with the answer in a dream. “I bolted up, and then sat in bed, waiting two hours for light — then mixed tofu scraps in a blender and combined them with oil,” he says, which gave the consistency he was looking for. Eventually they replaced the tofu with isolated soy proteins — and began making it themselves, as Vegenaise.

    “We didn’t want to be a manufacturer, but that became the only option,” he says.

    It was so popular that in 1988, Follow Your Heart started a manufacturing division, Earth Island, which expanded from Vegenaise into other plant- based products like salad dressings, dips, and cheeses.

    It was highly successful — but around that time the original Follow Your Heart partnership started to dissolve. Goldberg says “we all wanted to do different things. Like many bands we broke up. We lasted about as long as The Beatles.”

    Goldberg and Lewin bought out their other partners. Goldberg says “Spencer went into early retirement, and Michael went on to become an executive at Whole Foods.”

    Vegetarian to vegan

    At that time Follow Your Heart and their Earth Island products were vegetarian, which meant they made some dairy products in their factories.

    But when they started making white label products for Trader Joe’s, they were forced to wrestle with whether to go vegan. Trader Joe’s Caesar and Blue Cheese salad dressings had been made with a plant-based rennet. But when that became unavailable, they faced a choice.

    "I wasn't comfortable with the company using a natural rennet — the enzyme used to coagulate cheese — from the intestine of a baby cow when the vegan one ran out,” he says.

    They ultimately decided to give up that part of the business, and became completely plant-based. “I wasn't willing to be involved in the slaughter of animals.”

    He says they walked away from millions. "We saw a short-term drop in sales, but eventually it paid off.”

    Goldberg spent nearly 30 years building Earth Island. In that time, their products became available at grocery stores across the country and around the world. Their offerings helped spread the ubiquity of plant-based eating to a new generation that could now more easily access vegan food.

    In 2020, Bob's long-time friend and business partner, Paul Lewin, unexpectedly passed away. "His passing was a big part of why I was ready to close that chapter of my life" says Goldberg "as it was something that we had done together for 50 years, and without him, it just wasn’t the same". So in 2021, he sold Earth Island for an undisclosed amount to French food-product corporation Danone, famous for their yogurt, who also had a dairy-free division, including the plant-based milk alternative, Silk.

    At the time, Goldberg felt like he had spent enough time at the factory. “It was a good thing — but it was just so big,” he says. “I wasn’t having as much fun as the first ten years with the four partners behind the bar. I didn’t know everyone on the staff anymore. I didn’t know our customers, it was all big grocers. It wasn’t the same personal experience.”

    Part of the sale required Bob to stay on at Earth Island/Danone for an extra year to help the transition, but now Bob is back where it all started at Follow Your Heart in Canoga Park.

    He still has an eye to the future, seeing trends and wanting to be part of them.

    "I have a sense, and a vision that Canoga Park is beginning a real renaissance of development, with the Rams building a training facility and Warner 2035. If you look around, this was an almost affordable area. Over the next twenty years it's gonna be very much in demand. We’re hanging in there — we want to be a part of the next phase.”

    A dining room full of various people sitting at wooden square tables next to a wooden trellis with various hanging artworks.
    Diners eat in the cafe at Follow Your Heart Market & Cafe in Canoga Park.
    (
    Brian Feinzimer
    /
    LAist
    )

    They own the building across the parking lot, which still says “Mr Jack’s Wig Shop” (which was never actually a business, just the set design from the movie Licorice Pizza).

    In that space they are going to build out a bakery and a coffee roaster. “We still have our wholesale bakery — but we want to get into the retail side,” says Goldberg.

    When I visited Follow Your Heart to interview Goldberg recently, we had a lunch of plant-based Reubens. Afterwards, he gave me a copy of his 2020 book “The Vegenaise Cookbook, Great Food That’s Vegan, Too” and signed it “To Josh my great new friend. Integrity is the answer.”

    For Goldberg, integrity means “making sure that one’s actions are congruent with one’s beliefs. That you are living in your truth. And when you aren’t, those relationships get fractured. Integrity is what makes things cohere.”

    Kinda like Vegenaise.

  • A club dedicated to recording city sounds
    A group of ten people stand and sit looking towards the camera with field audio recording equipment.
    The LA Field Recording Club crew on an outing.

    Topline:

    The sounds of Los Angeles are bringing together people from all walks of life to record and archive them, from the buzzing of a bees’ nest in Griffith Park to church bells echoing over goose honks in Echo Park.

    The backstory: George Jensen founded the Los Angeles Field Recording Club a little over a year ago. He said it has attracted sound lovers with all levels of recording sophistication, from people recording on their phones to professional recorders worth thousands of dollars.

    Why now: The Los Angeles Field Recording Club is hosting a listening session tomorrow, Aug. 30 in Highland Park.

    Read on ... for details on what the club is listening to.

    The sounds of Los Angeles are bringing together people from all walks of life to record and archive them, from the buzzing of a bees’ nest in Griffith Park to church bells echoing over goose honks in Echo Park.

    And you can listen to these recordings tomorrow in Highland Park.

    George Jensen founded the Los Angeles Field Recording Club a little over a year ago. He said it has attracted sound lovers with all levels of recording sophistication, from people using their phones to folks with professional recorders worth thousands of dollars.

    A longtime radio guy with shows on dublab and KCHUNG radio, Jensen fell in love with preserving audio moments in the city and beyond after capturing the serene sounds of a cove in Big Sur.

    “There’s a certain fluctuation of sound happening — a pulse you might say — in this city," Jensen told LAist. "Once people sit and be still for a moment, they hear it.”

    About 20 club members meet up once a month at places like the purportedly haunted Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, a scrap yard in Sun Valley and a section of Griffith Park, where someone recorded a cacophony of bees buzzing around their nest.

    Jensen, who works as a prop fabricator in the TV and film industry, said people are drawn to field recording for many reasons: Some love nerding out over the gear; others need the sound to embellish an art or music project.

    The club's next endeavor, he said, is an interactive sound map where field recordists can archive their audio online for all to enjoy.

    The club’s outings end up being a bit of an antisocial social club, Jensen joked.

    “At the beginning, everybody meets each other... and then you go be by yourself and be quiet,” he said.

    Los Angeles Field Recording Club Listening Session

    Where: Figueroa Unanimous Radio, 5820 North Figueroa St, Los Angeles (behind the Bearded Beagle shop)
    When: Sunday, Aug. 30 at 6 p.m.

    He added there's a meditative quality to field recording that hooks people.

    “I think once people do it, they realize that you kind of stop and listen," Jensen said. "You become in the present. You’re forced to.

    "I think there’s, like, a certain therapeutic thing that comes with it,” he said.

  • Sponsored message
  • A new exhibit showcases LA punk band
    Black and white photo of four musicians playing on stage at American Bandstand.
    X performing at American Bandstand in the 1980s.

    Topline:

    Michael Hyatt photographed X during the L.A. punk band's ascent in the first half of the 1980s.

    Why it matters: Hyatt had rare access to the pioneering group at the dawn of L.A. punk, photographing the group on the road and at shows.

    Why now: Hyatt’s works are compiled in a new book, X: On the Road & At the Crossroads, 1980-2024, with an accompanying exhibition opening at Beyond Baroque on Sept. 5 — where X singer Exene Cervenka will join Hyatt for a reading.

    Read on ... for photos of X and the stories behind them.

    Michael Hyatt was photographing the new L.A. punk scene tearing up Hollywood when he got an offer few would refuse.

    It came shortly after the band X released their seminal 1980 debut, Los Angeles. Singer Exene Cervenka and bassist John Doe had liked a photo Hyatt had taken of the Plugz.

    “They asked me if I would photograph X,” Hyatt said.

    For the first half of the ‘80s, Hyatt photographed X wherever he could. On their first national tour where he also drove the jury-rigged tour van. At the Whisky just months after the unexpected death of Exene’s sister. On a downtown L.A. rooftop, days before the band’s big Greek Theatre show.

    A person with tousled hair rests their chin on their hand, wearing bracelets and a bee-print shirt, seated before a framed painting.
    Exene.
    (
    Michael Hyatt
    /
    Michael Hyatt
    )

    “I never pose people. I find a location, a backdrop and just let them be human beings,” Hyatt said. “People reach a point where they forget the camera —  that's when the good photographs happen.”

    Hyatt’s works are compiled in a new book, X: On the Road & At the Crossroads, 1980-2024, with an accompanying exhibition opening at Beyond Baroque on Sept. 5 — where Cervenka will join Hyatt for a reading.

    A man with short hair and a woman in a flowery dress behind him in a countryside setting.
    Exene Cervenka and John Doe in the Louisiana countryside in 1980.
    (
    Michael Hyatt
    /
    Michael Hyatt
    )

    A band built on chance encounters 

    X’s story reads like a constellation of happenstances hurtling toward inevitability. In 1976, Doe and guitarist Billy Zoom answered each other’s ads in the Recycler. That same year at a Beyond Baroque poetry night, Doe met Cervenka and saw punk lyrics in her writing. Ray Manzarek of the Doors, after seeing X live, offered that very night to produce their debut album in 1979.

    A year later, Los Angeles helped cement L.A. punk, with a sound and sensibility markedly different from contemporaries the Germs and Black Flag.

    A release party marked by tragedy

    For the album’s release party, Hyatt said, X played two back-to-back shows in April at the Whisky a Go Go. Before they went on stage, Cervenka was told that her sister had been en route to the show when she was hit and killed by a drunk driver.

    Three months later, Hyatt took this portrait of the band after another show at the Whisky.

    A black and white photo of four people at the backstage of a venue.
    X at the backstage area of Whisky a Go Go in July 1980, three months after the sudden death of Exene's sister.
    (
    Michael Hyatt
    /
    Michael Hyatt
    )

    “I placed Exene against that plywood panel,” Hyatt remembered. “My goal, maybe on an unconscious level, was to capture the emotion related to the tragedy that happened three months prior.”

    The iconic rooftop shot

    A woman in sunglasses and three men behind her -- two of them with guitars -- on a rooftop overlooking downtown L.A.
    A photo of X taken two days after their 1981 Greek Theatre show.
    (
    Michael Hyatt
    /
    Michael Hyatt
    )

    In August 1981, X played in front of a crowd of 5,000 at the Greek Theatre.

    “ They had reached the height of their powers,” Hyatt said.

    He wanted to capture that zeitgeist. So two days later, he met the group at the rooftop of their rehearsal studio, which Hyatt scoped out at a practice session prior to the big Greek show.

    “I went up and I thought, ‘Wow, this is a fantastic spot,’” he said. “Got a little bit of the skyline off in the distance of downtown L.A., but you've got the Roosevelt Hotel right there too.”

    After three rolls of film, Hyatt said one shot clearly stood out.

    Four decades later, still at the front row

    Four middle-aged people clapping at the front row of a gig. Two of them are wearing X shirts.
    At X's Houston show in 2024, Hyatt photographed a married couple that went on a first date to see the band in 1980.
    (
    Michael Hyatt
    /
    Michael Hyatt
    )

    In 2024, X went on tour for their final album, Smoke & Fiction. One stop was Houston, Texas.

    They’d played in Houston on their national tour in 1980, at a long-defunct punk venue called the Island.

    In the crowd at the Island in 1980 was a young couple on their first date. A couple years later, Hyatt said, they got married.

    “And there they were, 44 years later, right up front cheering on X — who they saw on their very first date,” Hyatt said.

    Still together, wearing matching X shirts.

    X: On the Road & At the Crossroads, 1980-2024
    Photo exhibit and book launch. Exhibit runs Sept. 5 – Oct. 17 at Beyond Baroque, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice

    Reading: Saturday, Sept. 5, at 2 p.m. Featuring Michael Hyatt; Exene Cervenka; L.A. music journalist Chris Morris, who wrote the book's foreword; and poets Iris Berry, S.A. Griffin, Brendan Constantine and mike m. mollet.

    Reception & book signing: 3 to 5 p.m.

    Free and open to the public; reservations recommended.

  • New album pushes LA band's sound
    Four young people sitting on a bench looking intensely at the camera.
    The Linda Lindas just dropped their third album, and major label debut, "Gotta Get Out."

    Topline:

    The Linda Lindas are no longer just the L.A. punk band that broke out as kids. On their third album and major label debut, Gotta Get Out, they’re expanding their sound and songwriting.

    What's next: They’re taking the new album on the road, with a North American run of headlining shows.

    Read on... for how the band has grown since their 2021 performance at the library in Cypress Park went viral.

    Over the Linda Lindas’ career, talk about the band has often centered around how young they are.

    They broke through as tweens and teens when a 2021 performance at the library in Cypress Park went viral after it was posted online, in part because they sounded so commanding for their age. The drummer, Mila de la Garza, was 10 at the time.

    Five years and several albums later — Gotta Get Out, their third album and major label debut, just dropped yesterday — the Linda Lindas are outgrowing their old image.

    “I do think people still hear 'kid band' when they think of the Linda Lindas,” said Lucia de la Garza, Mila’s older sister and one of the guitarists. “It's like we're not actually really that young anymore.”

    It’s been eight years since the sisters joined cousin Eloise Wong and family friend Bela Salazar to play a local music fest. What was a one-off gig turned into a real band that always seemed to have homework to do.

    “We'll play a show and then go backstage and finish an essay,” Lucia said.

    “Almost like we're Hannah Montana,” Mila said.

    “Without the secret identity,” laughed Lucia.

    Then came the library video, a record deal with punk label Epitaph and their 2022 debut album Growing Up

    They started touring the world opening for their heroes like Green Day and Paramore. (Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams is featured on the single “Closer.”)

    And as of this summer, more big leaps: They signed with Warner’s Reprise imprint, and all but Mila have graduated high school.

    As they’ve grown, so has their songwriting.

    Where they used to write individually, for their new album, they holed up in L.A., Long Beach and Palm Springs to write in the same room from the beginning. No phones allowed. Just riffing.

    “We believe in each other and each other's ideas so much that we were kind of just pushing each other to go for it,” Lucia said. “What if we added synth here? What if the drums dropped out?”

    By the end of the sessions, they had amassed about 30 songs and the 12 tracks on the album were split evenly between the three writing locations, produced by the sisters’ dad, Carlos de la Garza, who’s worked with Paramore, Bad Religion and Best Coast. (He actually started working with Best Coast after meeting them when the duo came to a Linda Lindas rehearsal in the family's backyard, according to Lucia.)

    The album moves beyond straight-ahead punk, dipping into new wave, power pop and hardcore.

    The Linda Lindas on tour

    The Linda Lindas are touring across the U.S. and Canada in September and November.
    They are opening for Jimmy Eat World at the Hollywood Bowl on Nov. 7.
    Find tour information on the band's website

    That range tracks with the members’ own eclectic listening habits. Lucia has been listening to indie artists Blondshell, Francis of Delirium and Indigo De Souza. Mila cited Julien Baker’s Little Oblivions, while Eloise, who plays bass, has been digging into local hardcore punk like Special Forces from San Luis Obispo, not to mention the Heated Rivalry soundtrack. Guitarist Bela has been listening to pop from Hollis and Mexico's Belanova.

    Meanwhile, their lyrics tackle the issues staring down their generation, from climate change to fascism and economic injustice.

    On “Blood on Our Hands," Eloise belts out an indictment of not just the government but the complicity of bystanders.

    Eloise said the song isn’t just about calling people out about the state of the world, but “making everyone think about all of the little things that we can do to try and make it better, you know, and make it more sustainable, and make sure that people can live.”

    Elsewhere on the album, like on the single “Burning Out,” the band reflects on that strange space between youth and adulthood and seeing friends move into new stages of life while wondering if they’re being left behind.

    Whatever uncertainty they may be feeling, the Linda Lindas say one thing is for sure: It’s all about their music now.

    Next month, they head out on their biggest tour yet as headliners with dates across the U.S. and Canada.

    For a band whose early years involved squeezing in homework between soundchecks, life has simplified in at least one respect.

    “It's pretty much all about the band,” Eloise said.

  • Big Tech is spending big to combat it
    A silhouette of a person speaking on a phone in front of a window with a downtown area and bridge in the background.
    Polls show voters are turning sharply against data centers and several bills to regulate the facilities are advancing in the California Legislature. Utilities and tech companies, meanwhile, are spending millions lobbying state officials. A lobbyist talks on his phone at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Sept. 12, 2025.

    Topline:

    The public has turned against data centers, prompting a flood of legislation in California. Business interests are trying to blunt the backlash.

    More details: Companies backing data center construction are flooding Sacramento with cash, hoping to stop or defang seven bills that would regulate the facilities as they head toward approval in the California Legislature this week. The pro-data-center spenders include Big Tech companies like Amazon and AI titan Anthropic. But they are led, dollar-wise, by old school utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric, which earlier this year clocked its second biggest lobbying quarter since 1999.

    Why now: The financial push comes a year after four bills that attempted to regulate data centers died or were diluted after lobbying from the industry. But as artificial intelligence fuels an unprecedented facility buildout, public backlash is transforming data center construction into a major issue for candidates in upcoming elections.

    Read on... for more on how Big Tech is spending big to combat the backlash to data centers.

    This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

    Companies backing data center construction are flooding Sacramento with cash, hoping to stop or defang seven bills that would regulate the facilities as they head toward approval in the California Legislature this week.

    The pro-data-center spenders include Big Tech companies like Amazon and AI titan Anthropic. But they are led, dollar-wise, by old school utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric, which earlier this year clocked its second biggest lobbying quarter since 1999.

    The financial push comes a year after four bills that attempted to regulate data centers died or were diluted after lobbying from the industry. But as artificial intelligence fuels an unprecedented facility buildout, public backlash is transforming data center construction into a major issue for candidates in upcoming elections.

    A May Gallup poll found seven in 10 Americans oppose data center construction in their communities, while a Public Policy Institute of California poll in July found similar opposition statewide. Rising public anxiety over utility costs, water use, and grid strain has driven California lawmakers to propose strict new data center rules — igniting a high-stakes lobbying push by the industry.

    Hundreds of cities have considered or passed project bans this year, including in Monterey Park, where voters passed a ballot measure to permanently ban data centers, and Bay Area cities like Pittsburg, which backtracked on approvals following public outcry.

    The level of concern and sensitivity is through the roof.
    — Steve Padilla, California state senator, on data center policy

    State law requires businesses and groups that engage in lobbying to report their overall quarterly spending, but does not require a breakdown of exactly how much is being spent on each bill. An analysis by CalMatters of lobbying activity for the first six months of 2026 found that utilities, tech companies and their proxies have spent millions of dollars lobbying state lawmakers, with data center bills emerging as a primary focus.

    By Monday, it will be clear which bills made it out of the Legislature and onto Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for signature or veto by the end of September.

    The fate of the measures could have far-reaching consequences, affecting not only data center development but environmental regulation, utility rates, and how freely California’s tech giants can operate in the state. Nationally, advocates and lawmakers agree that California’s regulation around data centers could be an important bellwether for how similar fights will play out elsewhere.

    “The level of awareness is through the roof, and the level of concern and sensitivity is through the roof — it's bipartisan, it's national, and it's across the board,” California Sen. Steve Padilla, a Democrat from Chula Vista who is author of two pending data center bills, told CalMatters.

    Who is lobbying on data centers?

    During the first half of 2026, Amazon paid more than $500,000 to lobby lawmakers on 33 pieces of legislation, including several data center bills and matters related to antitrust and artificial intelligence. Amazon spent more than $1.7 million lobbying in California last year.

    Meanwhile, AI company Anthropic, which sent its first lobbyists to Sacramento last year, has spent nearly $90,000 to influence decisions made by the California Legislature so far this year and, according to the Financial Times, nearly tripled its federal lobbying spend in the same time period. Last year, Anthropic spent over $200,000 lobbying in the state.

    Although Anthropic paid a lobbyist to influence lawmakers decisionmaking on data centers, a spokesperson said the company does not support or oppose any specific bills in California. The company, the spokesperson said, is also interested in working with lawmakers “on AI safety and other relevant issues." Representatives for Amazon did not respond to a request for comment from CalMatters.

    Utility giant PG&E’s latest filing shows that it spent $2.86 million lobbying in California between April and June — its second highest quarter since 1999 (only surpassed since then by 2018, the year of the deadliest wildfire in state history, later linked to its equipment). A spokesperson for PG&E said the company has engaged on a “broad scope” of issues facing the industry during this legislative session, adding that “less than 5% of our spending was on data-center related issues,” amounting to approximately $143,000.

    People wearing suits and nice clothing stand and talk amongst each other in a room with a hallway that has tall ceilings. A few wooden bars separate the people from the foreground.
    Groups acting as proxies for data center operators and tech companies have been especially active this year in California’s capitol, critics say. Business interests say they are trying to ground policy conversations in reality.
    (
    Fred Greaves
    /
    CalMatters
    )

    Other utilities, like Southern California Edison, and unions representing utility workers, like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, have also invested in lobbying efforts on the bills.

    Utilities providers are particularly motivated to influence bills because the development of new data centers represents a historic opportunity for expansion and grid upgrades, according to Matthew Freedman, senior staff attorney for The Utility Reform Network. Under the current regulatory framework, he said, the cost of expanding transmission lines is spread across all grid users, which means everyday consumers foot the bill.

    But several of this year’s data center bills would change that, shifting costs back toward data center operators. “The groups that have been the strongest opponents of the bills this year include the proxies for the data centers and the tech companies,” Freedman said, referring to industry groups such as the Data Center Coalition, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the California Chamber of Commerce. “They serve as a mouthpiece for the tech industry.”

    Filings do not show that tech giants like Google, OpenAI, Meta, and Microsoft are lobbying lawmakers directly on data centers this session. Instead, the business groups Freedman referenced, which represent the Big Tech firms, carry the weight.

    Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which represents companies including Apple and Amazon, has so far spent over $100,000 lobbying on bills including the various data center measures this year and is on track for its highest annual lobbying spend since tracking began in 2005.

    The Data Center Coalition, which counts companies like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI among its members, has logged its second and third highest-ever spending quarters so far this year. It has spent roughly $60,000 lobbying state lawmakers and the governor’s office to voice opposition to nearly every bill that would regulate data centers.

    The bills and the backlash 

    The measures before the Legislature this session include:

    • Bills to shift electric infrastructure costs toward data center operators and away from residential customers: SB 1168, SB 886 and AB 2383.
    • Bills mandating disclosures or estimates of water usage (and sometimes usage of other resources): AB 2619 and two bills that cleared the Legislature Thursday, AB 1577 and AB 2469.
    • SB 887, which would require all data center projects to undergo environmental reviews and offer fast-tracked approval for facilities that meet standards for water and energy conservation.

    Business interests opposed to the bills argue they would stifle tech companies’ ability to innovate and compete, tie up critical infrastructure in red tape and unfairly burden the construction of data centers versus the construction of other types of projects.

    Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Ahmad Thomas told CalMatters that he sees public debate over data centers as fueled by “strong anti-AI sentiment,” and that industry groups like his aim to “ground the conversation in reality” about the ways consumers rely on data center infrastructure for everyday services.

    Advocacy groups counter that transparency is vital to protect the environment and public resources, and that everyday consumers should not be affected by increased infrastructure and utilities costs.

    Britt Smith, who is part of a community group organizing against a controversial $2 billion Amazon data center project in Gilroy south of San Jose, said corporate opponents of the bills are “spending so much because there’s so much at stake,” adding, “Our future, our safety, is not for sale.”

    This robust fight stands in stark contrast to last year, when the only bill signed into law was stripped down to just a requirement for state energy regulators to publish an environmental impact study on data centers’ electricity demand. Newsom also vetoed a water usage disclosure bill, citing concerns that regulation could stifle AI growth.

    Whether this year's intensified lobbying will yield similar results remains uncertain, but lawmakers say shifting voter sentiment heading into the midterms has altered the political landscape.

    “When you're looking down the barrel of public outcry that says we don't want [data centers] at all, and you've got localities that are saying they’re going to ban them, then you know the atmosphere has changed,” Assemblymember Diane Papan, a San Mateo Democrat who authored two of the bills, told CalMatters. “We are in a totally different environment this year.”

    This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.