E Rosalie

@erosalie@infosec.exchange

Just so we’re 1000% clear: no state or local government should be giving financial incentives to build a data center. If anything, it should come with increased taxation—because wherever they go, they gobble up water and energy. They should be paying locals for the privilege of being tolerated.

March 15, 2026 at 4:21:57 PM

These companies are selling their product as a major inevitable and crucial transformation. If theses things are true, then they can afford to be taxed.

However - I do wish we used some term other than "Data Center", as it would be "Building a data center" for me to renovate a building to run local company websites out of.

I followed you on the basis of this brilliant post.

How do you "pay the locals" for vanishing their local aquifer?

Practically speaking, both energy and water are limited resources--resources which, prior to this "AI" boom, were both already under massive pressure.

Does the cost/benefit to society as a whole pencil out for the massive additional load Generative/LLM mega-data centers add to resource demand/comsumption?

A: No. It does not.

Not to mention the health issues associated with living near one, especially if that data centre is using gas turbines, like a depressing amount are.

yeah. And the locals everywhere should keep (sometimes successfully) fighting them, as I've seen, even near here, in Tucson.

well, they started on giving incentives for things that took way more water, and outputs way more pollution with animal farming, and with that, no locals seemed to care.
bryantresearch.co.uk/insight-i

So it's just one more thing to destroy the environment.

Bryant Research - Helping you build a better future of food

A Drop in the Bucket: Comparing the Water Footprint of AI and The Cattle Industry - Bryant Research

How much water does AI actually use? And how does it stack up against water-hungry beef and dairy?

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