The greed with which the tech companies and data center providers are consuming electricity will be their downfall. By trying to make a few extra bucks by passing on some of the costs to consumers, it will trigger a huge political backlash that will screw them all. The fact they don't realize this is greed and hubris on their part.

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Tangurena2 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

My state almost got a bill passed that would have made data centers pay for the new generating capacity. The House passed it, but the Senate strangled it. Thanks lobbyists!

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/26rs/hb593.html

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philipallstar an hour ago | parent [-]

The lobbyists are just doing their jobs well. It's the Senate that isn't. Blame the people who you pay taxes to purely to be impartial.

	▲	jlarocco 22 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		There's no reason not to blame lobbyists as well. A lobbyist saying "it's just business," doesn't excuse them for being assholes.
	▲	23 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[deleted]

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WarmWash an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Consumers should consider cancelling their AI subscriptions if they don't like datacenters.

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mywittyname an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Most people don't have AI subscriptions. A lot of the most fervent detractor hate AI to the core and refuse to use it as much as possible.

Perhaps we should charge AI subscription "tax" to pay for more renewable energy.

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slg an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Most consumers don't have any AI subscriptions. Lots of people's primary experience of AI is it being forced on them through integration into existing products and services, more "greed and hubris".

	▲	genewitch an hour ago \| parent [-]
		i, an avid AI user, have never paid a subscription, as a point of data!

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kibwen an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Not sure if this is sarcastic, but there are effectively no consumers (as opposed to corporations) with AI subscriptions; the number of paid ChatGPT users is a rounding error. In the long run we should not expect the number of paid consumers for LLMs to be significantly greater than the number of paid consumers for search engines.

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morkalork an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Curiously, also taking place in Virginia, I just a local newspaper was bought out and fired their few journalists after they did an investigative piece on a google datacenters being built in the community.

February: https://www.roanokerambler.com/water-authority-releases-goog...

April: https://cardinalnews.org/2026/04/14/former-roanoke-rambler-o...

This tells me they know what they're doing is unpopular and are willing to squash any opposition.