Trump's EPA Clamps Down on Public Outrage Over Data Centers — the One Issue Sparking Bipartisan Revolt

Originally published at: Trump’s EPA Clamps Down on Public Outrage Over Data Centers — the One Issue Sparking Bipartisan Revolt - TPM – Talking Points Memo

Americans across the political spectrum are outraged and staunchly opposing the development of new AI data centers — and the fossil fuel-burning gas plants that run them — in rural and urban communities across the country alike. So naturally, the Trump administration’s Environment Protection Agency, run by Lee Zeldin, is putting a stop to how…

Only 13% of Americans “strongly approve” of Trump — including a paltry 35% of Republicans.

Jesus Goddamn Christ. Who the fuck are these people? 13% is a shitload of crazies.

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Steel mills are a minor source of air pollution? What world is Zeldin living in?

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The E.P.A. has also proposed another sweeping change that would let developers start building data centers before their permits are approved. And it has exempted the gas plants that fuel many data centers from limits on pollutants that cause acid rain.

Every big AI data center is now using this workaround to build in places where there isn’t enough electricity on the local grid. Just park dozens of gas turbine generator trailers for power. It’s so bad that AI investors are now pouring money into companies that make these portable gas generators.

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I think it’s more than just a world. Let’s just call it the “ Trumpiverse “

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All permits should be public. That’s the point of a permit. It is the public granting permission to use the public’s resources, so it absolutely must be public knowledge.

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What about the water for these data centers? Very few of the build-outs are located where water is cheap and abundant.

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When the atmosphere becomes toxic, only billionaires and their families will be able to wear the latest in breathing equipment.

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The elimination of this federal requirement means that members of the public may no longer be notified of new developments in their community

I’m from the federal government, and… frankly, I’m here to take over.

making “the United States the artificial intelligence capital of the world.”

We don’t want to snoop on Americans. We want to snoop on everybody.

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Someone should propose Data Centers near Golf Courses. Owned by you know who…

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The thing that crosses my mind the most about so many data centers, other than the environmental impacts, is has anyone determined a rough estimate of the amount of data redundancy existing across all of the data centers and their LLMs in general? Redundancy is a major foo-foo in data base design because it wastes space/costs money to store data. My guess is there is at least, on average, 75% redundancy across all data center LLMs. Seems we should be talking about sharing data to reduce this redundancy and the technology to build to support that data model

Example: if I ask multiple AI providers who won the 2020 presidential election, they all give the same answer: Biden. That is data redundancy.

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I don’t know how they’re getting around that. Electricity is a more critical resource than water but they still need it. Either tapping local municipal supplies or drilling wells, I guess.

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He’s living inside Trump’s butt. Just like the entire cabinet.

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Use eminent domain. Propose them on golf courses. That’s otherwise wasted acreage.

Data centers may be the nail in the coffin for Republicans in the Senate. They are hated everywhere except the Trumposphere.

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For Electrons, bring in Gas Turbine generators. Air Pollution issues be damned!

But ya gotta understand. That may piss people off. They may say no. We can’t have that. The poors can’t determine this country’s direction. And, you know, the Chinese. They’re different and they do things. Bad things. And techbros definitely know the future. And that future can’t have China, because reasons. Do you hate America?!?!

Not mentioned are the enormous amounts of water needed to keep the data centers cooled. Many proposed data centers are located where water is already scarce. Once those aquifers are dried up, there’s no more water for anyone.

Maybe the Orange Shitstain needs to start digging a canal from the newly named Lake America to the West, could bring all the water they need (well, for the data centers, everybody else had better be prepared to pony up the greenbacks if they want to keep living where they are…)