Meta got Data Center $3.3 billion tax break — could consume 20% of Louisiana's power

[KenH]

"Entergy Louisiana is building a $470 million, 60-mile transmission line to feed the site, but in a joint brief, a coalition opposing the project argued the data center could consume close to 20% of Louisiana's total electricity, warning of "costs that could ultimately exceed a billion dollars". A Bloomberg analysis found wholesale electricity prices for ratepayers within 50 miles of data centers have climbed as much as 276% over the past five years."

- rest of article at https://moneywise.com/news/top-stories/meta-zuckerberg-louisiana-hyperion-data-center-tax-break

 

[DaveXR650]

You know, I read WSJ and National Review, both of which are fairly conservative, and both also keep putting up articles saying that opposition to all these data centers is wrong headed because China is already ahead of us, our national defense is at stake, and only Democrat Socialists oppose them.

Does anyone have any explanation as to why so much energy is required, why you would assume the enemy's military would not immediately target this massive vulnerable infrastructure in the event of conflict or at least use their own AI to disrupt it, and why it is that it's a good thing that we keep up with China in recording and now keeping and analyzing every single keystroke, and every time anyone opens their refrigerator, and what they look like when the get into their car, every single post they have ever made anywhere at any time, and every single product they linger over at a store?

 

[Ben1445]

You know, I read WSJ and National Review, both of which are fairly conservative, and both also keep putting up articles saying that opposition to all these data centers is wrong headed because China is already ahead of us, our national defense is at stake, and only Democrat Socialists oppose them.

Never met a democrat socialist who opposes them. They may exist. They might even be the majority.

The folks who I hear, probably because they are closer to me geographically and politically (not identical) are conservatives who like stability and don’t appreciate the things that data centers bring with them.

Does anyone have any explanation as to why so much energy is required,

There is no such thing as the cloud. There is only someone else’s computer.

Essentially you are running on demand computer systems that must be available at all hours for businesses, personal people, and AI bots who are doing research so they must create ten more bots to do more research because they learned how to be lazy from their own creator. Eventually we have to supply power to a lot of bot creating bots and a handful of peon bots that actually research.

why you would assume the enemy's military would not immediately target this massive vulnerable infrastructure in the event of conflict or at least use their own AI to disrupt it, and why it is that it's a good thing that we keep up with China in recording and now keeping and analyzing every single keystroke, and every time anyone opens their refrigerator, and what they look like when the get into their car, every single post they have ever made anywhere at any time, and every single product they linger over at a store?

I would assume that they would target these assets. I would not exclude physical tampering and sabotage. There are real security risks.
I think the solution to most objections is to create power surplus and make the power bills decrease instead of increase.

What we need is fewer offices in the middle brokering the power supply and more real power supply.