Maryland citizens hit with $2B power grid upgrade for out-of-state AI • Hacker News Board

Re: Maryland citizens hit with $2B power grid upgrade for out-of-state AI

#211

Post by bryan_w » Tue, May 12, 2026, 6:11 AM UTC

tempaccount5050 wrote: post #30

UqWBcuFx6NV4r wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is so much FUD going around SPECIFICALLY about data centers lately, that i’m dubious of anything i hear. it’s such a weird cultural phenomenon. Chronically online teenagers on Instagram making increasingly incorrect and absurd-sounding claims about water / energy usage. Comparatively barely anyone knew what a data center was 1-2 years ago.

Yep. 10000 gallons per query, spews out toxic water, contaminates the water supply, uses more power than an entire state, and on and on. I'm convinced it's a psyop to prevent the US's progress in tech. It's so over the top crazy and obviously false, but everyone I know is falling for it.

You didn't even mention the "infrasound" issue that's been picking up steam lately

Re: Maryland citizens hit with $2B power grid upgrade for out-of-state AI

#212

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 12, 2026, 9:53 AM UTC

julianlam wrote: post #208

nradov wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it fair to Dutch citizens that they're going to be left behind in what is effectively the next industrial revolution? The Netherlands does pretty well in other economic sectors including fossil fuels and agriculture but those aren't going to enable much future growth.

> those aren't going to enable much future growth. What is with this obsessive need for "growth".

[deleted]

Re: Maryland citizens hit with $2B power grid upgrade for out-of-state AI

#213

Post by fakedang » Tue, May 12, 2026, 6:11 PM UTC

triceratops wrote: post #203

fakedang wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely my point. The US grows an unsustainable amount and then pushes it to places it was grown in traditionally like the Mediterranean, Western Asia and the Middle East.

How do you decide what's "unsustainable"? And what does "pushing almonds" look like exactly? Almonds are fucking delicious and nutritious. They sell themselves.

The USA produces the lion's share thanks to USG subsidies, then the USG comes over to the old world countries and the commerce reps start faulting the countries for a.) blocking American agricultural imports or b.) subsidizing their own local agriculture.

Since the American almonds are also produced at a much larger scale, they can also underprice the locally produced almonds ridiculously, which further disincentivizes local farmers from growing almonds and forces them to grow something else.

Re: Maryland citizens hit with $2B power grid upgrade for out-of-state AI

#214

Post by Schiendelman » Thu, May 14, 2026, 12:11 PM UTC

jamescrowley wrote: post #35

tempaccount5050 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. 10000 gallons per query, spews out toxic water, contaminates the water supply, uses more power than an entire state, and on and on. I'm convinced it's a psyop to prevent the US's progress in tech. It's so over the top crazy and obviously false, but everyone I know is falling for it.

‘More power than an entire state’. Yep - take the Stratos data center project in Utah, the first phase of which is expected to consume 3GW and at full capacity is expected to be 9GW. By comparison, the entire state of Utah currently uses about 4GW.

There's a little evidence that project is real, it looks a lot more like a pie in the sky dream.