Actually yes. They did vote for this.
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People should be angry and upset about this. Similar to the story some weeks ago where residents of a small Texan town (seemingly rightfully at first) complained about the noise pollution of a Bitcoin mining farm. Turns out they all voted Republican. It's always "we'll deregulate and bring business" just that the modern businesses they bring are a net negative for the area except for the politicians and the companies. Is almost like these regulations were there for a reason.
Both Bitcoin and AI are stupid VC money that only matters in a very small bubble, and they're not business in a traditional sense. They just leech resources at their compute centers to make the people who own them and live far away rich. I pity all this who didn't vote for this kind of bullshit. The rest, enjoy your shorter showers and everything else! But remember, it's the Dems who want to dictate stuff like water usage. Not in my free country! Oh, the water is gone because a greedy Corp stole it? That's fine, one day it's my turn to be rich.
If you care about the environment and are upset about corporations and their datacenters your best voting option is neither the red or blue party.
It doesn't matter if you voted Republican. These problems are a direct consequence of Republican policies that they announced before the elections. Fearmongering about "any party left of us will take away your freedoms to limit your resource consumption" is a trait of far-right parties. My point was not about Democrats. It was about people who vote Republican.
The US has a political problem with its voting system that benefits two parties, and they won't get rid of it. As long as this is the case, no other party matters. Also, Dems usually enact more regulations for the environment; see also California.
I voted neither Reps or Dems because I live in the EU, and my vote always went to Greens or other environmental parties.
It's always a good idea to put computer centers in areas with water scarcity. /s
Well, it could work. If the local government gave a shit. Which they don't, because Texas. But the water going into a datacenter does come out... The main downside being that it's hotter (which is a limiting factor, you can't run it in a loop without some big cooling system, and rivers/lakes are by far the most effective way way to do that).
The article I saw doesn't say what the problem is exactly. Is the datacenter pumping from an aquifer rather than a lake/river? Are they raising the temperature in ways that affect the environment negatively? Are they abusing the municipal water supply instead of pumping their own water, forcing the taxpayer to essentially subsidize their infrastructure? Lots that could go wrong, but it's all shit that should be fully figured out during the permitting process.
If AI centres need so much cooling, why are they building them in Texas in the first place?
Lack of regulations of all kinds
On a suspicion, I had a quick look, and of course there's also tax incentives, apparently.
Love this quote "Texas had long been a preferred location for large data centers given its central location, economic climate, reliable electric grid, historically low occurrences of natural disasters, educated workforce and pro-business environment." :|
The republican capacity for lying never ceases to amaze me.