As communities across the country are fighting new data center projects, states are not only allowing data centers to be built, but many are also providing billions of dollars in tax breaks to incentivize data center construction.
This regime’s cruelty and corruption know no bounds. Your reporting is vitally important to regaining our democracy! You are precisely what the Founders had in mind. 💪🏽🗽⚖️⭐️
Jeez! I'm not necessarily in favor of data center projects, and I certainly am not a fan of the industry's and local governments' inept and sometimes dishonest approach to pitching them. However, "blowing their budgets" is a nonsensical and dishonest way of framing the issue. Tax exemptions do not "blow the budget" unless the project creates additional costs that must be paid from current tax revenue. Exemptions reduce potential revenue, not current tax revenue. One cannot even be sure that it will reduce potential revenue since investors may go elsewhere without the tax exemption. Although I have not seen data proving it, I do believe that at least some initial data center projects do impose new costs on local and state authorities, but local and state governments have learned from experience. Most now require data center projects to cover power and water costs, or have legislation pending that would impose these requirements.
The costs are mostly being borne by citizens who see the cost of electricity going up substantially to upgrade the infrastructure. Since most power companies are monopolies, the public has little say in the rate increases. Then there are the unfortunate people whose homes are adjacent to these data centers. The noise and associated hazards make their properties unlivable and unsalable.
Yes, especially in the earliest cases, the impact on residential electricity bills was ignored. I am not saying that data center projects have not been problematic in several ways. Rather, I am saying we now know how to plan, locate, and operate these centers without creating these problems. We ought not to oppose all center projects on the basis that these problems are inherent in the technology. They aren't. In most affected jurisdictions, steps are being taken to require data centers to pay the full costs of new power generation or distribution infrastructure. Noise is usually a result of data centers temporarily relying on diesel-powered generators until the power grid is expanded to meet their demand. These generators will not be allowed to continue indefinitely unless Trump and this Congress succeed in totally gutting the Clean Air Act. In some cases, where jurisdictions have set appropriate conditions on location, power and water use and costs, and air and water pollution, the company cancels its proposal. I believe that is a good outcome and the best way to handle data center projects.
I'm tired of hearing more about Trump. I know he's bad, and I know his people are bad, and that bad things are happening under our noses, and that congress isn't doing its job of governing the country, instead preferring to let the president handle everything. I know that a certain Jewish man from Santa Monica is so paranoid, he's been firing up ICE to get rid of every darn immigrant anywhere in the country who fits his paranoid threat scenario. I know all of this bad stuff is ruining people's lives and is going to make this country into a third-world broken state by the time Trump leaves office. I just want the guy to hurry up and be gone from this world, and I hope people learn that education also means educating young people about the evils of evil people and stop trying to pretend they don't need to know this stuff. Because, well, they really really do need to know so they can protect the future after we are either senile, or gone, or both. Teach them starting as soon as they are teenagers, or earlier if they seem ready for it.
This regime’s cruelty and corruption know no bounds. Your reporting is vitally important to regaining our democracy! You are precisely what the Founders had in mind. 💪🏽🗽⚖️⭐️
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Jeez! I'm not necessarily in favor of data center projects, and I certainly am not a fan of the industry's and local governments' inept and sometimes dishonest approach to pitching them. However, "blowing their budgets" is a nonsensical and dishonest way of framing the issue. Tax exemptions do not "blow the budget" unless the project creates additional costs that must be paid from current tax revenue. Exemptions reduce potential revenue, not current tax revenue. One cannot even be sure that it will reduce potential revenue since investors may go elsewhere without the tax exemption. Although I have not seen data proving it, I do believe that at least some initial data center projects do impose new costs on local and state authorities, but local and state governments have learned from experience. Most now require data center projects to cover power and water costs, or have legislation pending that would impose these requirements.
The costs are mostly being borne by citizens who see the cost of electricity going up substantially to upgrade the infrastructure. Since most power companies are monopolies, the public has little say in the rate increases. Then there are the unfortunate people whose homes are adjacent to these data centers. The noise and associated hazards make their properties unlivable and unsalable.
Yes, especially in the earliest cases, the impact on residential electricity bills was ignored. I am not saying that data center projects have not been problematic in several ways. Rather, I am saying we now know how to plan, locate, and operate these centers without creating these problems. We ought not to oppose all center projects on the basis that these problems are inherent in the technology. They aren't. In most affected jurisdictions, steps are being taken to require data centers to pay the full costs of new power generation or distribution infrastructure. Noise is usually a result of data centers temporarily relying on diesel-powered generators until the power grid is expanded to meet their demand. These generators will not be allowed to continue indefinitely unless Trump and this Congress succeed in totally gutting the Clean Air Act. In some cases, where jurisdictions have set appropriate conditions on location, power and water use and costs, and air and water pollution, the company cancels its proposal. I believe that is a good outcome and the best way to handle data center projects.
I'm tired of hearing more about Trump. I know he's bad, and I know his people are bad, and that bad things are happening under our noses, and that congress isn't doing its job of governing the country, instead preferring to let the president handle everything. I know that a certain Jewish man from Santa Monica is so paranoid, he's been firing up ICE to get rid of every darn immigrant anywhere in the country who fits his paranoid threat scenario. I know all of this bad stuff is ruining people's lives and is going to make this country into a third-world broken state by the time Trump leaves office. I just want the guy to hurry up and be gone from this world, and I hope people learn that education also means educating young people about the evils of evil people and stop trying to pretend they don't need to know this stuff. Because, well, they really really do need to know so they can protect the future after we are either senile, or gone, or both. Teach them starting as soon as they are teenagers, or earlier if they seem ready for it.