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Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

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Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#121

Post by alistairSH »

jwlake wrote: post #41
toomuchtodo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just about water. It's about the noise, little to no benefit to the community besides a handful of jobs, air pollution where they're colocated gas turbines for power, and pushing up electricity prices. They are a net negative for most communities. "Winning" in this context is simply slowing down permitting and construction until the capital bubble pops, at which point a great deal of these projects simply ev…

Has no one heard of the concept of industrial zoning? When you live next to an industrial zone you get all the consequences. I love how literally all these projects are on shuttered sites of various plants that were presumably louder and more polluting than these new data centers.

Visit Loudoun County VA and get back to me.

Virginia mostly used by-right zoning, which treated data centers like just another office block. The result is linked below. Those cranes in the back of photo 2 are building yet another data center. Loudoun recently changed the zoning laws to end by-right development of data centers, but it's a bit too little, too late. Yes, some of those homes predate the data centers. Yes, not all of them - the county has allowed this mixed development for 20+ years now.

1 - https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/GettyIm...

2 - https://oxfordamerican.org/media/pages/oa-now/how-data-cente...

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#122

Post by stronglikedan »

axus wrote: post #82
anr0 wrote: post #40

pittsburgh has many old power plants that are perfect for data center converts when i go home and hear about this i'm conflicted. it brings short term economic prosperity. what's the cost if there's no commitment to clean energy in reality the developers on these projects will do whatever it takes to simply get the project done

Data centers belong in "industrial areas", ignore the snarky jokes about them being as bad as the coal plants they are replacing. People have legitimate complaints when they are built within audible distance of housing.

Not to mention that there's plenty of room to build them well outside of developed areas altogether. Sure, there will be some logistical challenges wrt utilities, but nothing that can't be overcome - just call it a compromise.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#123

Post by asdff »

ImJamal wrote: post #106
asdff wrote: post #91

It is amazing seeing how openly corrupt red states are in recent years. At least blue states still attempt to maintain a fig leaf. Has it always been this way with the red states or have things legitimately gotten worse?

How is this corruption? There is a very real fear that electricity and water prices will increase for the average person due to AI data centers. Trying to protect the interests of the common man over that of billionaires seems like the exact opposite of corruption.

Smells like the governor who is a known sycophant to capital has gotten some heat among the public on data center roll out, so in comes industry seeking to self regulate itself no doubt in such a way that pulls up the ladder behind it while also not stymieing its own operations with any regulation that might actually have some teeth that might affect profitability. This is Texas after all, this is what the state seems to be for. Abbot knows his role.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#124

Post by gruez »

alpha_squared wrote: post #120
rayiner wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building stuff is good stewardship. We complain about NIMBYs. But with a few relatively modest regulations data centers can be quite friendly. They don’t generate traffic, congestion, etc. They don’t strain school or police infrastructure. Basically need some noise regulations. But the NIMBYs will kill it.

NIMBY is largely used for housing development discussions and to contort it in support of developing data centers is incredibly intellectually dishonest. If we're going to rebrand things to blur lines, I propose rebranding data centers to pedophile content hubs. The rest of your argument is full of similar cherry-picking for dishonest discourse.

>NIMBY is largely used for housing development discussions and to contort it in support of developing data centers is incredibly intellectually dishonest.

No, it's frequently used in infrastructure discussions as well, eg. high speed rail or power transmission lines.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#125

Post by gruez »

alistairSH wrote: post #121
jwlake wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has no one heard of the concept of industrial zoning? When you live next to an industrial zone you get all the consequences. I love how literally all these projects are on shuttered sites of various plants that were presumably louder and more polluting than these new data centers.

Visit Loudoun County VA and get back to me. Virginia mostly used by-right zoning, which treated data centers like just another office block. The result is linked below. Those cranes in the back of photo 2 are building yet another data center. Loudoun recently changed the zoning laws to end by-right development of data centers, but it's a bit too little, too late. Yes, some of those homes predate the data centers. Yes…

> The result is linked below. Those cranes in the back of photo 2 are building yet another data center.

Is this supposed to be bad? Maybe the datacenter in the first picture has an ear piercing whine, but neither of the pictures looks obviously bad.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#126

Post by sensanaty »

WarmWash wrote: post #74
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it safety regulation that makes nuclear so hard, or is it just that we can't seem to do large projects of any kind any more?

I can tell you from second hand direct experience that the regulations are absolutely over the top, and then doubled for good measure. It almost makes aviation look like running a lemonade stand.

> It almost makes aviation look like running a lemonade stand.

I'm about as pro-nuclear as you can be, but that's probably a good thing. Modern reactor designs are amazingly safe, and the industry itself has a really amazing track record, but there should be no room for the usual corner cutting shenanigans when it comes to nuclear.

I do genuinely believe that the West at large has lost the capability of getting any kind of large infrastructure project built due to hilariously blatant corruption. Even France, the poster child for nuclear energy and how much of a success story it can be, is struggling with their latest nuclear expansion because we let the private entity ghouls come in and suck everyone dry for every penny they can manage.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#127

Post by ourmandave »

coldbrewed wrote: post #4

This is a collection of "OpenAI will boldly act in the abstract to provide air coverage for Texas leadership." With data centers under construction one would think they would have examples of successes or projects in progress available for reference. They'd claim credit if they had it so the silence is telling. Big tech has consistently valued profit and growth above good stewardship; the onus is entirely on OpenAI t…

...provide air coverage for Texas leadership.

The GOP runs Texas. The governor, sec of state, AG, and both houses are republican. Since when have they ever wanted or needed air coverage?

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#128

Post by TitaRusell »

rayiner wrote: post #116
coldbrewed wrote: post #4

This is a collection of "OpenAI will boldly act in the abstract to provide air coverage for Texas leadership." With data centers under construction one would think they would have examples of successes or projects in progress available for reference. They'd claim credit if they had it so the silence is telling. Big tech has consistently valued profit and growth above good stewardship; the onus is entirely on OpenAI t…

Building stuff is good stewardship. We complain about NIMBYs. But with a few relatively modest regulations data centers can be quite friendly. They don’t generate traffic, congestion, etc. They don’t strain school or police infrastructure. Basically need some noise regulations. But the NIMBYs will kill it.

Citizens having a say in what is going on in their neighborhood is now controversial. Big brother knows best.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#129

Post by JuniperMesos »

alpha_squared wrote: post #120
rayiner wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building stuff is good stewardship. We complain about NIMBYs. But with a few relatively modest regulations data centers can be quite friendly. They don’t generate traffic, congestion, etc. They don’t strain school or police infrastructure. Basically need some noise regulations. But the NIMBYs will kill it.

NIMBY is largely used for housing development discussions and to contort it in support of developing data centers is incredibly intellectually dishonest. If we're going to rebrand things to blur lines, I propose rebranding data centers to pedophile content hubs. The rest of your argument is full of similar cherry-picking for dishonest discourse.

Opposing new housing construction is bad in basically the same way that opposing data center construction is bad; and I'm happy to use the same word to describe both groups of people.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#130

Post by munk-a »

watwut wrote: post #84
vrganj wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They must be "effective" "altruists". The only way to do good is to first do all the bad and consolidate power, so you can then use all that power to do good, pinkie promise!

I noticed the same thing about effective altruism. Its fans are really good at convincing themselves the most self-serving action amd goals are noble pursuits.

It suffers from an ends-justify-the-means trap where bad actions in the short term with the long term goal of good actions are justified by the fact that you, the actor, know your philosophy is the best way to enact positive change.

I'm happy to try and get already wealthy individuals on the train of effective altruism but it has been used to justify wealth concentration far too much and, to be honest, spreading money around is one of the most effective ways to enact real positive changes in the world since individuals know their own situations the best.

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