Americans are angry about data centers. Politicians are feeling the pressure

Who cares about pressure when you can now receive enough compensation to never worry about getting re-elected ever again. You can even fuck off to some safe haven country to live the rest of your life in peace and comfort.

still isn't gonna stop people from releasing the massive built-up stress and obliterating anything these morons have attempted to build.

if they weren't concerned then "hawaiian bunkers" wouldnt even be in society's vernacular.

if any rich people get caught in the crossfire at this point then that's on them but society has made it pretty clear that this is not an "if" situation and more a "when" one.

I think there's room for win-win solutions here; the cost of placating the locals is a rounding error compared to the cost of these data centers.

1. Local governments can require that if the data center peak load is 1.0GW, they must provision transmission and generation capacity for the local region of 1.2GW; the extra power can be given to the neighbors at substantial discount.

2. Construct a public swimming complex nearby, heated with waste data center heat.

3. Local governments can enforce strict limits on environmental noise at the property boundary. I've personally stood right next to a 150MW-class datacenter and experienced sound levels less than traffic from a typical suburban 4-lane street; making the datacenter quieter than any other industrial use is a choice the builder can make if they have the right incentives.

Setup directional microphones around the perimeter, and fine them $25,000 per minute per dB above the agreed threshold. Distribute the fines to the neighbors. Failure to pay promptly means the sheriff shuts down the power.

All of these options are far cheaper than launching the data center into space...

A datacenter was built a couple hundred feet from my apartment complex around 2013-2014. Absolutely none of your comment would have even remotely held true at the time, and my family moved away as a direct result.

Assuming positive intent, what’s different nowadays that makes it all different? It would actually make me pretty happy to hear about the incredible leaps and bounds that’ve been taken.

Similar to the trajectory of nuclear power which lost public approval for reasons that are not entirely rational.