You know I’m sure this is true on some level but if you think this is all or a majority of the motivation I think that sounds pretty conspiratorial.
replyStadiums routinely get tons of public funds and never return the same value to the city.
replyIt's not really a conspiracy, perhaps more a delusion.
Why do you see data centers as "energy parasites"? They are basically the best customers of the grid possible - consistent high usage. This is an opportunity for the US to pursue energy abundance and grow the economy. The only issues these cause is when states make it impossible to deploy more energy.
replyAnti growth environmentalism is so toxic when we could just be pursuing wide spread clean energy and growth.
> Why do you see data centers as "energy parasites"?
replyhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48123090
> They are basically the best customers of the grid possible - consistent high usage.
The grid exists to serve the populace. It's why we tend to call it a "public utility".
This is a truly delusional take. A high-consumer that needs constant input provides zero benefits to its neighbors. If datacenter providers want to benefit the grid, they ought to build clean energy production sufficient for their needs and then some as a prerequisite for approval. That would be beneficial to everyone.
replyThe big Meta data center in Louisiana is paying $30 million property taxes to a county that is collects $22 million a year in taxes. It pays tons of money to the utility for power. Utilities should just build more generation to serve demand and everyone wins.
replyThe part of this that is broken is we’ve made it way too hard to spin up more power in this country. Growth can be good for everyone.