Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built • Hacker News Board

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#141

Post by Timon3 » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 12:57 AM UTC

Legend2440 wrote: post #85

goda90 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who consumes the goods produced by the factories and mines? Not all consumption is good. It can harm health, relationships, etc. And many goods have been ravaged by planned obsolescence and other corner cutting such that we're forced to consume more to maintain status quo. > Who lives in the apartments and takes the high speed rail? This is frankly an entirely different class from mines and factories. While there i…

>Not all consumption is good. That's not your call to make. If I am willing to spend my hard-earned money on a thing, it's because I think it will improve my life. Who are you to tell me otherwise? You're not my mom. And it is not true that we "Privatize the profits, socialize the losses". Bailouts are rare exceptions; in general, investors take the loss when a business fails. They are last in line in bankruptcy cour…

>> Not all consumption is good.

> That's not your call to make.

That's not your judgement to make. First it's patently false in almost every modern society (there might be some with literally no restrictions on private ownership, idk), and second everyone can come to their own conclusions.

I for one am glad we don't have 8-year-olds enjoying one last smoke before an entire day in the mines, and if we did, I wouldn't let you tell me I can't say whether that's good or bad. You're not my mom.

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#142

Post by acdha » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 1:38 AM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #111

acdha wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They used to bring lots of jobs which didn’t require specialization. That’s not saying they didn’t have real negative impacts but that people were more willing to accept that as a tradeoff when it was a middle-class living for an entire neighborhood. Data centers are getting resistance now because anyone who lives nearby is getting pollution and higher prices with no compensation: they’re not going to work there and…

They should pay high taxes or something. Or come with a swimming pool powered by waste heat.

Sadly we’re at the point where it’s a controversial position to argue that they shouldn’t receive tax cuts. It’s impressive how successfully faux-libertarian propaganda has been at breaking support for the idea that companies should pay for their impacts on others.

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#143

Post by preg_match » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 1:59 AM UTC

MinimalAction wrote: post #50

christophilus wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m fine with datacenters being built as long as we have some rules: they have to be quiet enough to not be audible beyond the border of the land owned by the datacenter. They have to pay for new electrical capacity so that they don’t burden locals with that externality. Really, that’s it. I think most people could get behind that.

No. If they still draw an enormous amount of water, that's the finite resource that's getting wasted no amount of money could immediately retrieve. Paying for electricity doesn't mean the resources are not shared.

My understanding is that the water argument is the weakest one - the water is given back to the city, it's not like it's used up. And using water for cooling is one of the "cleanest" uses of water, it's not like toilets or showers.

Personally I am much more concerned about datacenters that take it upon themselves to burn natural gas. And noise. Noise pollution can actually be detrimental to your health, and there's basically no mitigation that exists. So we really have to look at noise.

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#144

Post by thefz » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 5:55 AM UTC

TimTheTinker wrote: post #15

The rumor is going around on X that foreign enemies of the US (especially China) are trying to influence Americans through social networks against building data centers.

God forbid if the citizens actually speak against the rampant destruction of their living spaces by techno-bros! There must be THE COMMUNISTS behind!

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#145

Post by thefz » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 5:57 AM UTC

woah wrote: post #4

It's sad. For all the lamenting that the US is losing industrial capacity (or lost it long ago), we can't even handle some of the lightest industry possible. A big building that hums and releases slightly warm water, and the only sector in which we could still be called a world leader. Instead of trying to find property tax arrangements that work to give municipalities a big payoff, and power supply arrangements that…

A hum but 24x7 is devastating, and even a very little increase in water temperature can kill local fauna. Additionally you are occupying public space for a private profit.

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#146

Post by therealpygon » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 2:05 PM UTC

mapping365 wrote: post #9

I think it can't be categorized as NIMBYism because the underlying sentiment is not just no data centers in my backyard, but anyones backyard. It's about the AI project itself, even if it expresses itself differently for a local context.

My 2 cents is that it’s more about market manipulation (by proxy) than anything. What happens if you convince consumers AI is bad and they shouldn’t approve small datacenters, is the next step regulations? Businesses (primary target) will still use it, people probably will too despite calling datacenters and AI bad. Then model regulations are the next logical target. And who will be regulated? The effect is exactly what OpenAI and Anthropic have been looking for.

How many of X/Amazon/Google/Anthropic/OpenAI data centers have been blocked? I’m going to bet that number is close to zero for any important projects they were planning, likely because they were approved before the real regulation pushes started.

Both sides are getting played with the same song that ends in AI regulations, which is bad for people and good for profits.

It’s all strategy and theater so people can find alternative cause to latch onto that can be steered so it doesn’t really hurt the big players but will ultimately lead to more regulations (and thus more profits).

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#147

Post by therealpygon » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 2:17 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #55

christophilus wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m fine with datacenters being built as long as we have some rules: they have to be quiet enough to not be audible beyond the border of the land owned by the datacenter. They have to pay for new electrical capacity so that they don’t burden locals with that externality. Really, that’s it. I think most people could get behind that.

They also cover acres of ground with impermeable surface so if they are in an area where rain runoff is an issue they should have to mitigate that also. Maybe they could collect the water to use for their cooling needs.

Land disturbance and rainfall/runoff/watershed considerations are literally part of the permit processes for any building?

Re: Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

#148

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 3:45 PM UTC

therealpygon wrote: post #146

mapping365 wrote: post #9

I think it can't be categorized as NIMBYism because the underlying sentiment is not just no data centers in my backyard, but anyones backyard. It's about the AI project itself, even if it expresses itself differently for a local context.

My 2 cents is that it’s more about market manipulation (by proxy) than anything. What happens if you convince consumers AI is bad and they shouldn’t approve small datacenters, is the next step regulations? Businesses (primary target) will still use it, people probably will too despite calling datacenters and AI bad. Then model regulations are the next logical target. And who will be regulated? The effect is exactly w…

> What happens if you convince consumers AI is bad

I get this isn't your primary point, but this line suggests people would have otherwise thought AI was good if it wasn't for some devious party convincing them otherwise. This is definitely not my read on the current environment. People think AI is bad because of its badness. The slop, the automated responses, the help bots, the being replaced at your job, and so on are just not popular.