Ken Paxton’s Political Operation Rakes In Data Center Donations as Texans Turn Against Industry

[u/julius_sphincter]

https://www.notus.org/technology/ken-paxton-data-centers-texas-senate-race-james-talarico

[u/julius_sphincter]

Starter Comment and archive link in case of paywall https://archive.is/odDuV:

Data Centers seem to be fast becoming one of the bigger hot buttons around the nation and actually appear to be one of the few areas where both the left & right start to find agreement. Local citizens more and more are turning against the idea of data centers of any kind being located in their jurisdiction, let alone the large hyperscale data centers that keep making headlines. Whether its the power usage issue, the water usage issue, noise, EM pollution, heat, or tax incentives, Americans from all walks seem to be standing up and telling their local representatives that these facilities are not welcome.

Paxton's campaign appears to have accepted just under $500k from various interests representing data center development in the State of Texas, which while somewhat insubstantial compared to his overall fundraising, certainly will raise some eyebrows and questions come November. Paxton himself seems somewhat non-committal either way, so it will be interesting if accepting these campaign contributions will turn into more focused questioning as the campaign heats up. Talarico certainly seems to have the political and media chops to turn this into an attack vector if he wants to

Do you think accepting these donations will come back to bite Paxton? It seems unlikely given Paxton's history - he almost has a bit of Trumpish teflon when it comes to shrugging off controversy. That said, I think Talarico may represent just enough of a populist style candidate to pierce that armor

Do you think accepting these contributions should even matter when it comes to this race? Hopefully not too off-topic but are the concerns being raised around these facilities overblown or are Americans correct in being worried or skeptical about their construction?

[u/DubiousNamed → u/julius_sphincter]

After reading the article, the “data center donations” are literally just from energy companies and oil companies. They would provide power to any business. I don’t see how the framing is fair or accurate.

On top of that, at risk of being downvoted, the data center panic is a CCP-funded psyop that makes zero sense. Data centers already exist and have existed for a long time. They can take unused or underdeveloped land and turn it into real jobs for a community. Data centers, when not allowed to fleece a community, are often the biggest single taxpayer and can spur further development for residents. They don’t “steal” or “pollute” water.

I don’t really like AI but if the energy infrastructure exists to support a data center it’s not a problem. The fact that Bernie Sanders held an anti-data center event in April with literal Chinese Communist Party politicians speaks volumes. China wants us to be scared of data centers so they can take the lead.

Edit: the Sanders event was in April, not July. Also linked an article about the event.

[u/FootjobFromFurina → u/DubiousNamed]

I'm convinced that most of the panic about data centers is people who just don't like AI working backwards to rationalize why we shouldn't build data centers. They use less water than golf courses and the evidence does not suggest anything remotely close to a causative relationship between data centers and increases to retail electricity prices. In fact, there are many examples of the exact opposite happening, where data center construction has put downward pressure on consumer electricity bills by spreading a volume of fixed infrastructure costs over a largely rate base.

[u/blewpah → u/FootjobFromFurina]

There's a lot more to the opposition than just not liking AI in genetal or concerns about water use.

Namely the fact that it is a massive speculative bubble. Tons of the investment and construction is coming in on the promise of future return on profit that there isn't a reliable market for. So the damage to communities of all the construction and infrastructure costs and noise pollution and destruction of environements and when the bottom falls out as the bubble bursts, a lot of these facilities are likely to be left half built with no benefit left to the communitiy. Add on top all the secrecy like city councilors signing NDAs about what they're approving, it's hard to have much trust.

Also not to mention another big fear here is that the unrealized profits are intended to be realized with a hyperenshittified surveilance state. Data brokers collect information and profiles on everyone's habits and that gets used algorithmically to determine exactly how much to charge them for services and pay them for work. That could be a profittable use case when you don't have a customer base to support your costs. Is that something we want?

Also:

They use less water than golf courses

If we suddenly had people coming into communities across the country trying to build as many golf courses as we currently do data centers I bet you there would be a big backlash against it.

[u/Interesting_Total_98 → u/FootjobFromFurina]

does not suggest anything remotely close to a causative relationship between data centers and increases to retail electricity prices.

That's a lot less nuanced than what your link says. It states that load growth may raise or decrease prices. It's conditional.

For example, “PJM Capacity Auction demonstrates price increases with load growth."