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New Amazon Data Center Is Set to Have the Most Polluting Power Plant in the U.S.

nytimes.com

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Re: New Amazon Data Center Is Set to Have the Most Polluting Power Plant in the U.S.

#101

Post by brikym »

On this map I can't see _any_ nuclear under construction in the US yet the rest of the world seems to be building many. When a man has a hammer everything is a gas turbine. GEV stock has treated me well but I'd much rather nuclear was winning.

It's a catch22 problem because nuclear is much slower to build than a data center so there is no demand from the data centers. And the nuclear plant doesn't know the demand will be there in 5 years once with gas soaking up demand. So the build it and they will come strategy is risky. Building infrastructure is like a muscle that gets stronger with repetitions. The cost will only come down once some are built but nobody wants to build at the current high prices. Govt help is needed to kick start it.

Re: New Amazon Data Center Is Set to Have the Most Polluting Power Plant in the U.S.

#103

Post by Permit »

estearum wrote: post #46
Permit wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Despite this, those in power refuse any environmentally aware energy policy nor water policy. Can you tell me how much water a data center uses? If you have strong opinion on the construction of data centers I hope you can answer this basic question about data centers. (Many opposed to them cannot)

Assuming that it's surprisingly little and without pollution concerns, then an acceptable and enforceable policy should be a very simple request, no?

Yes I agree.

Re: New Amazon Data Center Is Set to Have the Most Polluting Power Plant in the U.S.

#104

Post by xienze »

shakna wrote: post #60
xienze wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you might want to download new anti-Texas talking points. Texas is number two in the nation in solar power: https://seia.org/media/16020/texas.pdf/ Texas is not at all against renewables. Maybe, just maybe, whatever axes the people building data centers are optimizing on rule out solar/wind over factors other than "renewables are for leftists, so fuck that we're gonna burn gas even if it's more expensive."

15th for non-residential? Sounds like people overwhelmingly put it on their roofs, and politicians avoid it.

Avoid it to the tune of being in the top third (for now, they're projected to keep growing), behind only blue states that are known for aggressive rollout and/or climates that are overall more favorable (i.e., Texas gets its fair share of sun but not quite like CA and NV, for example)? Is that your idea of avoiding it because politicians want to own the libs?

Re: New Amazon Data Center Is Set to Have the Most Polluting Power Plant in the U.S.

#105

Post by disposition2 »

embedding-shape wrote: post #8

So even when xAI (which is now Tesla? Or SpaceX maybe?) was "operating dozens of unregulated gas turbines that worsen the air quality in one of the most polluted parts of the country"[0] this didn't place them above this new Amazon not-even-built-yet data center? Are they competing who can destroy the earth the fastest or what's going on? - [0] https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/20/musks-xai-is-being-sued-ov...

Pretty sure it’s “is”, they were operating gas turbines for power and continue to do so

Re: New Amazon Data Center Is Set to Have the Most Polluting Power Plant in the U.S.

#106

Post by defrost »

fps-hero wrote: post #89
vineyardmike wrote: post #9

Those in power seem to think that a compute advantage is necessary to maintain economic advantage. Despite this, the voters universally hate data centers, so much so that both NY and TX have data center construction moratoriums. Despite this, those in power refuse any environmentally aware energy policy nor water policy. Despite this, companies have been trying to be environmentally aware for either moral or marketin…

Look to Australia if you want to see how these energy policies work out in the long run. Energy is big money. Anything that disrupts the status quo is immediately vilified. It got to the point that our major party at the time lead a “gas fired” green energy policy. They got voted out, the new guys implemented a subsidised home battery policy. In the space of a year it has destroyed the economics of a carbon fuelled g…

> Except big gas, who cannot turn a profit on a renewable success story.

If only.

Chevron’s Gorgon project will be ongoing for decades and making money hand over fist flogging LNG out of Australia to overseas customers.

It'll be a massive source of previously sequestered CO2 and claimed to be "the largest CO2 sequestration project on the planet* .. with the minor catch of (re-) stashing away a very very tiny portion of the CO2 released. Something, something, not let it out in the first place?

Still, could be worse, at least they're not planning on fracking the Kimberley.

Oh, wait: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh9IkUUgaww

Re: New Amazon Data Center Is Set to Have the Most Polluting Power Plant in the U.S.

#107

Post by ungovernableCat »

stevesimmons wrote: post #67
t0mas88 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The overall American economy is going to pay the price in the long term. And current foreign policy is reducing trust in America as a reliable and stable partner, which will make things even worse.

Speaking as a European, current foreign policy is not "reducing trust in America as a reliable and stable partner". It has already reduced trust to rock bottom. It's hard to see how much worse it could get, short of outright invasion or allying with Russia. Just this week, amongst other news: * America's useless adventures in Iran have used up so many Patriot missiles there aren't any left to defend Kyiv against Russ…

There is a lot of that with the population but I don't see it at the leadership level yet. The top politicians are all still desperate to go back to the good old days of euro-atlanticism (and all the cushy positions it gets their friends & family), there's also the problem of all of their capital happily sitting and growing in fortune 500 companies.

Re: New Amazon Data Center Is Set to Have the Most Polluting Power Plant in the U.S.

#108

Post by embedding-shape »

disposition2 wrote: post #105
embedding-shape wrote: post #8

So even when xAI (which is now Tesla? Or SpaceX maybe?) was "operating dozens of unregulated gas turbines that worsen the air quality in one of the most polluted parts of the country"[0] this didn't place them above this new Amazon not-even-built-yet data center? Are they competing who can destroy the earth the fastest or what's going on? - [0] https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/20/musks-xai-is-being-sued-ov...

Pretty sure it’s “is”, they were operating gas turbines for power and continue to do so

So where is the police? They're running turbines they haven't been granted permits to run, if Average Joe did so the police would show up and literally grab the hardware from him, one way or another, or disable it at least. What the fuck are they waiting for?

Re: New Amazon Data Center Is Set to Have the Most Polluting Power Plant in the U.S.

#109

Post by defrost »

infecto wrote: post #100
inigyou wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit.

Eh you are posting hyperbole that has nothing to do with this thread. I made a single quip while furthering my position. Posting rules like you are doing are even worse. You have a downvote.

The person you are replying to is not the person that made "the Reddit style posts".

Re: New Amazon Data Center Is Set to Have the Most Polluting Power Plant in the U.S.

#110

Post by infecto »

defrost wrote: post #109
infecto wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh you are posting hyperbole that has nothing to do with this thread. I made a single quip while furthering my position. Posting rules like you are doing are even worse. You have a downvote.

The person you are replying to is not the person that made "the Reddit style posts".

Replace Reddit with hyperbolic statements that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. There was a wave of high points less than 1 year old accounts posting highly hyperbolic statements that had nothing to do with the topic or were so far off from how physics works that it’s a bit silly. The person I responded to is only posting because I disagreed with them in this thread elsewhere.

Going back to the original rule the point is to not have endless meta discussions. I am skirting it imo but I included rationale for my argument.

But instead of continuing a meta discussion the better option for someone like you would be to downvote it.

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