people need to realize that the commonly cited anti-data center complaints about noise, pollution, water, etc. are all masking the underlying grievance, which is that they're a physical representation of people's concerns around AI.txags92 said:YNWA.2013 said:Texas just approved a private power plant permitted to emit 33 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, more than double what the dirtiest coal plant in America currently puts out. It exists to power one thing: Amazon's AI data center sitting right next to it.
— The HighWire (@HighWireTalk) September 3, 2026
Amazon isn't…
" Amazon isn't connecting to the public grid. It's building its own gas plant, off the books, off the radar, and largely outside the community oversight a normal grid connection would trigger"
Sounds like the "switch" part in the "bait and switch"
This is what pisses me off about the whole NIMBY thing. Everybody *****es about some company wanting to build a data center in the middle of rich ag land and next door to their family ranch.
NIMBY: "Why can't you go build it some place in the middle of nowhere?"
Company decides to build in the middle of the trans-Pecos where nothing grows except cactus and oil.
NIMBY: "But you are going to destroy our power grid with your energy demands!"
Company decides to build their own power plant entirely off the grid.
NIMBY: "But you are going to produce a bunch of CO2 and your operations are going to be outside of the reach of our community oversight!"
If you don't want the power plant near you and you don't want them to connect to the grid, then you lose the right to be the "community oversight" and to make demands about how they power it beyond making sure they follow the air emissions permitting process.
What NIMBY really wants is for it not to be built anywhere but China. If you think China won't use AI and data control dominance to make demands on the rest of the world, you are delusional. But here we are letting China help whip up a NIMBY frenzy on social media and making it harder and harder for data centers to do business.
the AI companies keep telling people AI will take their jobs and maybe destroy the world (mostly hyperbole to hype their products), printing money as they do it, all while the government contracts them to implement mass surveillance of a populace struggling to afford basic needs. this is why saying things like "closed loop cooling system! low emission onsite power gen! far from residential areas!" do nothing to make people feel better about them.
