I mean if we really cared about this one bit we'd stop making a car based society in the US and save far more energy and pollution. That's not politically expedient and there are powerful vested interests in ensuring it doesn't happen.

That's why I think most of this data center energy use, especially over longer terms is a joke. Data center can pretty easily run on solar and wind energy if we spend even a small amount to political capital to make it happen.

They're a lot harder to build out from those sources because they are costed to run 24/7 and the intermittency issue comes to the fore. Unlike things like aluminium smelters there isn't always a good load-shed or even supply-timing story in a DC, cooling aside (big chunks of cooling can be used for demand management)

I am not in the DC business. if somebody who is says "thats bunkum" I'd pay attention to it.