US voters roundly reject data centers in ballot measures

SV_BubbleTime

Drake No: datacenters Drake Yes: Green compute sanctuaries Bet me this isn’t just going to be a PR issue.

kittikitti

US voters will do absolutely anything but stop using the apps and technology from Big Tech that are powered by these data centers. It's always hilarious when someone shows me a Reel or TikTok about how they hate data centers. Often, they will also send off an AI response on why data centers are problematic. They are completely oblivious or knowingly ignorant.

expedition32

They roundly rejected tech bro billionaires.

0xy

Of course, the US is fully of NIMBYs on all fronts. Housing, progress, infrastructure. In my local area, there's routinely local opposition to substations built due to growing residential demand and water infrastructure facility build. They're old boomers who don't want anything built, especially not if it will economically benefit their children.

knose

are data centers profitable, or are there currently a ton of hopes and dreams filled by outrageous investments that will bring down the economy if/when the bubble bursts? i am worried that it's the latter, but i have no clue and it feels too stupid to be true. are they actually making a profit?

phoghed

They’re probably inevitable anyway. Nobody likes to live near any kind of industry. For me as a kid that was dairy farms. Fucking horrible. Nobody lining up to close them down though. Hog farms are also terrible. Chickens I can imagine too, never seen one personally though. Even something relatively innocuous like an orange grove. Rented a house in one before. Peaceful most of the time, free citrus. But when it got too cold they’d burn diesel in these little tower things and run a wind machine (like a giant reverse windmill) that was loud as fuck all night. Had some relatives that lived near some kind of paper pulping plant. Guess if that sucked or not? Now that I think about it, the local environment not smelling like absolute shit is probably a relatively recent development.

cmiles8

Any hope of a bailout for AI or data centers vaporized last night. If an AI company gets in trouble it will be a “let it burn” scenario.

pesnk

That's what happens when you are building something too fast and affects negativity the local economy. I personal doubt this data centres are really the issue. But we got what we paid for.

bragr

Has anyone done an analysis of how these laws are defining "data center"? Anyone accidentally ban having a rack of servers on an office closet? That could suck for a lot of small businesses. I'm all for local autonomy, but knee jerk local laws can also be... messy.

travisgriggs

Did they reject data centers? Or did they represent the current ownership model behind data centers? Tech “ownership models” have accelerated the separation of haves and have nots. I’ve wondered if datacenters were regulated such that they become public goods (libraries, power and water infra, etc), if the public would invest more agreeably in them. Just policy thinking out loud.

pj_mukh

The fact that Americans can be made to vote for NIMBY policies was well known. My question is what Americans think economic growth in the 21st century looks like? As someone who grew up in a country with near zero growth (some would call it “sustainable growth”) and the resultant stagflation, I wouldn’t wish that feeling of growing into an economy where you can only aspire to take from others, on my worst enemies. I agree with these voters on almost everything, from the need for more energy and water infrastructure to using this growth to pay for basic needs like healthcare. But when push comes to shove, for growth, the cranes have to show up in your neighborhood and build stuff. It seems like we are habituating the American public to just reject that and hope it goes somewhere else (tm) while they get the gains and that’s not how this works.

ajmarsh

I'm all for data centers so long as they pay market rates for water and electricity.

twiclo

Kevin Oleary's data center is going to be built one hour from my town. A lot of people here seem upset about it but when I talk to them I can't get a single good reason to oppose the data center. Here's what I hear and my response: "It'll use too much water." - It's going to use less water than the farm that used to run on this land. The county is gaining water from this. "Our electrical bills will go up" - They're generating their own electricity and excess power will be put back into the grid "Noise" - It's an hour away from any structure on a stinky swamp north of the Salt Lake "Wildlife refuge" - This bird refuge is in Brigham City. The data center will be on the opposite end of the county. Some people seem to think it's right next door. My concern is I don't want tax payers left holding the bag if this falls apart but it seems like, at least with this DC, that that's not the case. This is going to bring a LOT of money to my county which sorely needs it and a LOT of people to my dying rural town. I really just have to come to the conclusion that we have a tiktok informed voting block here. I've had people ask me if I'm worried that the new data center will spy on me. What? Edit: I checked. This is going to use 162 million less gallons per year than the farm.

ActionHank

You know who has a lot of power / space / water? Private compounds owned by billionaires who believe data centers are the best. Seems to me, they already have a solution to their problem.

josh-wrale

I bet if AI actually starts making visible-to-patient progress in curing diseases, data centers will be welcome with open arms.

vachina

Bad news for the rest of the world, because you all will export this problem to us.

isolay

And it will all be explained away and get roundly ignored.

ChrisArchitect

Related: Data Centers on the Ballot https://datacentersontheballot.com/ ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50361608 )

runako

There are a set of data centers that got built where local laws were (and continue to be) broken. Messaging from the data center builders is that accepting their will is inevitable and they are above regulation. Given these, it is an entirely reasonable position to ask for a complete halt. This doesn't happen when UPS opens a distribution center or CVS opens a store because everybody knows UPS and CVS are bound by local laws. That cannot be said of e.g. SpaceX, so the only play is to keep them out, full stop. Nobody wants a neighbor who is above the law.