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It may seem like President Donald Trump couldn’t think any less of voters by offering them $5.000 each to vote for Republicans, but that wasn’t even the most tone-deaf act his administration attempted this week.
Amid a massive public uprising against data centers across the country, Trump’s EPA sought to eliminate the need for public input on air pollution permits for manufacturing and industrial plants. The proposals would also allow large tech companies to begin construction on data centers without their local or state governments even publishing that the centers are being considered.
The move essentially throws a grenade into the growing rift between local communities and Big Tech over the data centers, with hapless community authorities in the middle. More than 500 moratoriums have been passed at the state and local levels (See Massachusetts item below) as authorities attempt to regain control of the process, but this new proposal would essentially bypass them all together.
The proposal is almost certain to drive the data center question even further into the mix of issues for voters in the midterms in November, along with immigration, Social Security, and of course, the energy security and prices challenges. Most Republican candidates have sought to distance themselves from the data center question, and many are even part of the locals who are concerned about the water and air quality in their communities brought on by these complexes.
The promise of AI is essentially a giant bet that the president and Big Tech are making that asks the public to trust them with its environments, climate change, privacy and digital lives. Now, as questions emerge, they’re simply trying to steamroll the issue. It’s going to take more than $5,000 to make this one go away.
If you have ideas or suggestions for us, contact me directly at dcallaway@callawayclimateinsights.com.
Zeus: The campaign to solarize Catalina Island
. . . . Mark Tholke was just another vacationer on Southern California’s Catalina Island eight years ago when he asked someone how the pristine natural reserve received its electricity, writes David Callaway. He was shocked to find out the island 30 miles off the coast of Los Angeles was powered by a series of dirty diesel generators, some dating back to the 1960s. Now Tholke, a renewable energy executive, is leading a campaign to put solar energy on Catalina and convince the island’s power company, Southern California Edison to join him. A modest, 170-kilowatt solar project was launched last week next to the island’s airport, and Tholke hopes it will show that Catalina — and any island that imports fuel to survive — can indeed operate on solar power.
Thursday’s subscriber insights: Massachusetts adds new wrinkle to data center development debate
. . . . . Amid nationwide concern about the environmental impact of data center development for AI technology and rising moratoriums on construction at the local, and even state level, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey introduced a new restriction this week.
The State House will allow data center projects to proceed, but only if the tech company behind the projects provides its own — renewable — energy. Companies that cannot manage their own renewable energy to support their projects would have to pay into a special state fund that would go toward providing relief for ratepayers.
The idea is effective because it attempts to revert the entire data center arms race among the tech giants back to the original premise when they started a new wave of construction four years ago to accommodate the massive amount of energy needed to power AI development. That they would use renewable energy.
Instead, the race to develop AI and build the data centers to support it has led many tech companies to go against earlier climate pledges and simply start buying gas for their power, arguing it is available now and more accessible. The ensuing building boom has enraged grassroots community advocates and suddenly become an issue in the upcoming midterm elections in the U.S.
The Massachusetts plan is elegant in its solution and should be readily acceptable by the tech companies. Those who argue they either can’t find renewable energy in time or that it is too expensive to work will simply be telling their communities that they need to pollute them to grow their profits. Let’s see who decides to bite.
Editor’s picks: Mont Blanc is blanc no more; plus, bison eviction stayed
Watch the video: For centuries, French and Italian mountain communities on the flanks of Western Europe's highest peak could gaze upon glaciers and ice and snow that seemed eternal and which gave the colossus its name: Mont Blanc, the white mountain. The Associated Press reports.
The buffalo may continue to roam — for now
A federal judge has temporarily blocked efforts by the Trump administration to evict hundreds of bison from public lands in Montana. Public Domain reports the preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order is a win for American Prairie, a Montana-based conservation organization that for more than two decades has worked to restore bison to public and private lands in the state. “Bison belong on this landscape, and today’s ruling gives them a chance to stay,” American Prairie CEO Alison Fox said in a statement. “For more than 20 years, our bison have grazed these lands under federal authorization and without grazing violations. The court recognized the concrete harm that removing them would cause, not just to our work, but to our Tribal partners and the broader effort to return bison to their native home.” According to the report, the Bureau of Land Management withdrew American Prairie’s permits to graze buffalo on federal public lands earlier this year, arguing that the animals amounted to wildlife rather than “production-oriented” livestock. American Prairie sued last month to challenge the BLM’s cancellation of its bison grazing authorizations. In his order, the judge said that the BLM’s decision to exclude American Prairie’s bison from federal grazing lands was likely “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise not in accordance with the law,” Public Domain reported.
Words to live by . . . .
“The history of the United States can be read in the history of the bison.” — Ken Burns, director of “The American Buffalo” documentary.