US Voter Rejections Of Data Centers Hits 363
Last Week’s election sent shockwaves through American politics, and those shockwaves will reverberate for years to come
Democratic politicians, particularly here in Texas, are riding the biggest wave of political support since the Watergate era. The stock market initially reacted positively to the news.
Then it plummeted on Thursday amid fears that Democratic politicians at the state and federal levels will use their power to stop the AI boom and halt the expansion of data centers across the country.
Looking at the initial results, there is reason for concern. CNBC reported that 41 data center-related measures appeared on midterm ballots across 10 states, and “Voters sided against data centers in each measure except one.”
Concerns about the future of data center regulations are particularly obvious in Texas, which has more data centers under construction than any other state. During her campaign to unseat incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, Gina Hinojosa called for “an immediate moratorium on data centers to last until the legislature can meet to put in place real protections.”
Hinojosa’s stance clearly got Elon Musk’s attention. The world’s first trillionaire contributed $168 million in August and September to political action committees backing Republican Ken Paxton. In all, Musk spent $445 million on Republicans in the midterms, with at least $225 million going to Texas campaigns.
Musk should have just built a campfire with that mountain of money. As I reported last Wednesday, in “Talarico’s Texas Landslide,” Paxton, one of the most corrupt politicians in Texas history, lost to James Talarico by 1.4 million votes.
Like Hinojosa, Talarico wants to tap the brakes on the data center buildout. On his website, Talarico says he wants to stop data centers from “jacking up our utility bills,” and that they must “reduce water consumption and pollution,” and “empower local communities to decide whether they want a data center in their town.”
Musk understands the new political landscape. At 12:12 am on Wednesday, after the midterm results were clear, he posted on X, “data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now.”
Call me skeptical about data centers in space, but it’s clear that the opposition to those projects here on terra firma is real and it’s fierce.
That said, two things can be true at once. Yes, the opposition is real. But it isn’t stopping the data center buildout.
See more here substack.com
Header image: The Times of India
Tom
| #
Considering that many data centers take up acres of land, the only feasibility I see for data centers in space is that there will be 10’s of thousands of smaller satellites all hooked together by some electronic system. Just what we need…more space junk. The Muskrat doesn’t give a crap about the pollution he creates chasing his next grab for billions of dollars.
Reply
Carbon Bigfoot
| #
I wonder how those apposed to Data Centers where impacted by Mr. Softy’s problems yesterday?
A sign of things to come? There is a reason for this build-out. Those that live on their digital toys are in for big surprises.
Reply