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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

#41

Post by jwlake »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #39
adamrezich wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yeah nobody wants their local water supply to be either disintegrated into subatomic particles or polluted with every harmful substance known to man (whichever one they're supposed to do changes from day to day).

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.

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

#42

Post by [deleted] »

kdheiwns wrote: post #17
dyauspitr wrote: post #12

Why can’t these idiots just mandate that you have to build out clean energy to power the data centers. It’s such a simple bit of legislation that they just will not do.

To answer your question: Texas. Running on a platform of clean energy is political suicide in half of America, particularly in the south.

[deleted]

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

#43

Post by tolugenius »

This reminds of the times when companies made large public statements on clean energy and going carbon free during the Obama (and partially Biden) eras. The only difference here is now is a letter to a governor, which is signaling 1) companies believe the way to solve data centers is on a state basis and 2) if they don't do it, they can perhaps blame a lack of "guidance from local officials" versus any part on their own, they have done their due dilligence. I am curious to more see what states don't get any personal mailings, I think that's a better indication than anything actually written.

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

#44

Post by vendiddy »

dyauspitr wrote: post #12

Why can’t these idiots just mandate that you have to build out clean energy to power the data centers. It’s such a simple bit of legislation that they just will not do.

This seems like a good idea to me. I wonder what the hold up is.

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

#45

Post by toomuchtodo »

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.

This is not an excuse for residents to have lower quality of life for capital speculators "because it was industrial zoning". Try to make your case in a public hearing with a room full of residents, see how it goes. Long time politicians are getting fired over it, so natural consequences will help with this.

Data Center Disputes Fuel 33 Recall Efforts, Ballotpedia Finds - https://ballotpedia.org/Press_release_Data_Center_Disputes_F... - July 7th, 2026

Utah Senate President Loses Primary After Data Center Backlash - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/24/us/j-stuart-adams-utah-se... | https://archive.today/MMot6 - June 24th, 2026

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

#46

Post by ghostly_s »

arjie wrote: post #11

If Virginia or Louisiana should profit by this then so be it. Californian land-use laws will have a net effect of -8 house seats against Texas. That is good. It should happen. If Texans will be poorer so Virginians will be richer, that is also good. May the American federal system reign forever. Allowing for states as experiments and letting them suffer their consequences is good. It is a machine for us to iterate on…

This letter says nothing about Louisiana or Virginia, what exactly are you talking about?

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

#47

Post by kodablah »

https://texas-connects.com/ is also running lots of commercials locally. But both this open letter _and_ the commercials intentionally skate around the resource needs.

> OpenAI will pay our own way and protect residential and small-business customers [...] OpenAI will work to support new power generation in Texas

Notice how this very intentionally doesn't say they will work to support generating as much or more power than they will use? Because if they could do that, they would just generate their own power. It doesn't matter if they "pay their own way", they are now competing with households.

Same with water, all of these projects want to leech on existing systems because they don't even want to entertain developing their own systems.

However, having worked inside Texas DCs for a long time now, I think it's just the burst that's the issue, not the concepts. Sadly they'll share our resources, but I think they should pay a premium on their energy compared to residential (but it's hard to reconcile this with other commercial ventures that do not).

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

#48

Post by kodablah »

dyauspitr wrote: post #12

Why can’t these idiots just mandate that you have to build out clean energy to power the data centers. It’s such a simple bit of legislation that they just will not do.

While I would like this, my guess is it is hard to reconcile with all the other commercial ventures in the state (including datacenters) that aren't subject to such a requirement.

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

#49

Post by oceanplexian »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #38
w29UiIm2Xz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Polling shows a fairly bipartisan opposition to data centers, so it could encourage more states to join in with pauses of their own.

Tracking at: https://aidatacentermap.org/ https://www.datacenterbans.com/ https://www.datacenterwatch.org/ https://www.brockovichdatacenter.com/

Side note: Now's a fantastic time get into industrial processes or oil & gas since all of the fake propaganda against buildings with computers in them has distracted people from facilities built on a daily basis that cause 1000x the pollution and noise of a datacenter.

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

#50

Post by undersuit »

arjie wrote: post #11

If Virginia or Louisiana should profit by this then so be it. Californian land-use laws will have a net effect of -8 house seats against Texas. That is good. It should happen. If Texans will be poorer so Virginians will be richer, that is also good. May the American federal system reign forever. Allowing for states as experiments and letting them suffer their consequences is good. It is a machine for us to iterate on…

This is delicious comedy.
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