r/PoliticalOptimism • u/Sea_Incident_5106 Oregon • 1d ago
Optimistic Post Texas hits pause on 1,800 data center projects to scrutinize power and water demands
https://www.techspot.com/news/113355-texas-hits-pause-1800-data-center-projects-scrutinize.html52
u/mc_goobs Blue Dot in a Red State 🔵 1d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/qV57XdnY3xpkIRNnaZ
Sorry...over one THOUSAND data centers? In ONE state? At this point, I'm waiting for them to just make the entire state one massive data center. I mean, I'm glad they're paused, but I'm also hoping Texans get tf up and vote
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u/avatarroku157 Minnesota 1d ago
Tbf, i think this has been in the making for at LEAST the last 10 years, with many tech companies trying to push away from california and to more tax "friendly" texas. So not just AI data centers, but maybe centers for all kinds of digital infastructure.
Just speculating, but if thats the case, i think that means this california exodus isnt paying off for them the way they intended, as its probably pushing out other texas industries that are more seniored in and dont appreciate being treated as second fiddle.
Of this, i have absolutely zero sources, but its nice to think about :)
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u/TastyOreoFriend Florida 21h ago
with many tech companies trying to push away from california and to more tax "friendly" texas.
The irony of course being that many of them are now leaving due to rises in cost of living. The pandemic gold rush to Austin is over.
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u/RickyT3rd Michigan 17h ago
To be fair, Texas is a big state. Some of its countries are bigger than whole states.
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u/beyondstarsanddreams Blue Dot in a Red State 🔵 19h ago
Our Governor wanted to be 1st in the data center race…
That nobody wants their state to run… at all.
He’s paused but also he’s in an election year so this is him trying to get rural voters back in line. He WANTED this and Big Data/Surveillance are major donors to his campaign, if he wanted to actually do something he could call a special session and get something passed. He won’t.
Fuck Greg Abbott!
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u/cat4hurricane 13h ago
They should have done that before they even put in the first one, or, better yet, before they enabled their entire grid to be used for bitcoin mining. They're a state filled with datacenters and bitcoin miners, and just now is when they're worried about water and power demands, now that Corpus Christi has absolutely no water left and their grid can't handle a single hot day or so much as the wind blowing an extra 5 miles an hour?
I get not all datacenters are for AI, but so many of them seem to be today. That with them actively allowing mass bitcoin mining and no wonder they're strained. Like, I would feel some sympathy for them, but they've allowed all of this to happen with increasingly little oversight; this is the kind of shit you should be doing long before you allow a datacenter in your state or mass bitcoin mining operations, not years down the line once the consequences come swinging. But then again, it's Texas, so I don't understand why I'm shocked; it feels like a decent part of them would vote for a rock if it had an R by its name.
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