22 comments

  • GolfPopper 37 minutes ago

    This is bad news for everyone (well, except the high priests of the LLMs / nascent Cthulhoid godlings), but it certainly makes the communities who've successfully opposed data centers seem ever more justified in retrospect.

  • JohnFen 42 minutes ago

    That's in line with the EPA's new mission of ensuring environmental degradation.

  • millerm 14 minutes ago

    Executive Protection Agency

  • 59percentmore 15 minutes ago

    Antis are running out of time to stop what they wish to stop without resorting to destructive methods (bold and extreme action is already necessary).

    Pros are running out of time to square their ambitions with a public that's about to go from needing a leg up to a public that wants their heads.

  • awakeasleep 20 minutes ago

    I wonder if you could open any type of business as a datacenter now, to avoid the review.

  • childofhedgehog 28 minutes ago

    Probably an oversimplified question but how do we actually stop this?

      JohnFen 22 minutes ago

      A good start is to vote in the midterms to reduce the amount of power that these antihuman criminals have. The US is currently in the midst of a serious political disaster and there will be no quick fix to any of this. But if we take every opportunity possible whenever we can to rid ourselves of these people and to stand in their way as much as possible, we can work our way back from the brink.

        pc86 a minute ago

        I don't know about you but I've been hearing for two decades now that we "in the midst" of a political disaster. Every election is the most important election we've ever had! Just one more election going a certain way and surely things will start to get better! And then someone gets elected and they start "doing the work" or whatever but as soon as the wrong person gets elected we're right back "in the midst" of it again.

        It's all just so tiresome, but perhaps more importantly - it's not true. We are no more "on the brink" now than we were in 2020, or 2016, or 2008, or 2000, or 1996, or 1992. Or any of the elections in between those.

        Your hyperbolic "antihuman criminals" nonsense certainly isn't helping your point, either.

      Y-bar 20 minutes ago

      Unfortunately the answer is ”it requires effort”, or in other words: Vote (and hold them accountable after the ballots have been counted), Shout (literally), Protest (including civil disobedience), join any civil or environmental movement, help file legal challenges.

      Democracy is for good and for worse not a one-and-done thing, it is a continuous fight.

      idontwantthis 16 minutes ago

      Elections have consequences. Vote democrat in November and again in 2028. When someone tells you both sides are the same tell them no, it's only Republicans that are allowing Datacenters to sidestep the law in order to poison us more efficiently.

        cogman10 8 minutes ago

        Vote strategically.

        Democrats aren't by default better on this issue vs republicans so you need to be more involved than just voting in the general.

        If you are in a D leaning district, then register as a D and vote in the D primary. Make sure the candidate you vote for is the most likely to win who isn't captured by big business.

        A good example of a datacenter friendly dem that just won by the skin of their teeth is Crowley for governor in Wisconson.

          idontwantthis 5 minutes ago

          > Democrats aren't by default better on this issue vs republicans so you need to be more involved than just voting in the general.

          The only thing that matters is Democrats gaining control of Congress and state governments. The choice that isn't a democrat is the wrong one. The time to vote out an incumbent was the primary.

      crawfordcomeaux 16 minutes ago

      Thousands of people marching on data centers and taking them over at the same time.

      Elections will never save you when the parties in power serve the billionaires.

  • l1n 30 minutes ago
  • drop_star 21 minutes ago

    which reality show host is running the EPA now?

  • ck2 11 minutes ago

    "for the next 800 days"

    but of course a lot of permanent damage can be set in motion in that time

      aqme28 9 minutes ago

      So-- basically until the next administration. Interesting timing.

  • paimapi 42 minutes ago

    I love this line:

    >Last year, Lee Zeldin, who runs the EPA, said it was now the agency’s top priority to “make the United States the artificial intelligence capital of the world.” The 56-year-old agency was established in 1970 to protect the environment and public health.

    lol, reminds me of those videos where a host will say one thing and then the cameraman pans to reveal the lie

      andai 28 minutes ago

      That's a very strange goal for the EPA to have. I mean, it's a worthy goal, but it sounds very much like not their department?

  • dyauspitr 35 minutes ago

    Goddamnit this is the worst possible administration to have while we’re having this massive buildup of data centers. Any reasonable government would have done what Massachusetts did and stipulated that you can build a data center, but it needs to be powered by renewable energy so build out your own energy sources, which would have been a win-win for everyone but instead we get this. Also, if the Democrats were in power, I hope they wouldn’t succumb to a minority in their base and just ban data centers and completely take us out of the race.

  • Analemma_ 19 minutes ago

    Funnily enough this probably the most safetyist thing the administration could do at the moment, since this will certainly autocatalyze more opposition to DC construction in a bunch of states and probably accelerate the state-level moratoriums. A big thank you to the White House for taking AI pause as such an urgent priority.

  • jeffbee 28 minutes ago

    I'm pro-information and believe generally that anti-data-center activists are chasing a Glonzo on par with anti-5G electrosensitives. That said given the tide of opinion I'm overjoyed that Trump and his allies want to step into the fusilade to defend the unpopular.