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> "This is a purely political decision," Dutch Data Center Association managing director Stijn Grove said in a reaction sent to Reuters, adding that it had been

by belval 5y ago

> "This is a purely political decision," Dutch Data Center Association managing director Stijn Grove said in a reaction sent to Reuters, adding that it had been made "largely because it is Facebook." Conflicts with > After the local council approved the project, party Leefbaar (Liveable) Zeewolde ran on a platform of opposition to the data center, citing environmental concerns and a lack of local input. But then Facebook's response seems pretty reasonable to me: > “We strongly believe in being good neighbors, so from day one of this journey we stressed a good fit between our project and the community is foremost among the criteria we consider when initiating and continuing our development processes,” Meta said in a statement. To me all parties involved seemed pretty reasonable, the previous administration was favourable to the project, but got subsequently voted out of office. Now they just want time to make sure that they didn't get voted out because of that project. Facebook seems to understand.

hetspookjee 5y ago
That data center association is just a huge lobby front. Just the website in itself is a hilarious joke and a complete cherrypicked representation of some numbers. Good luck finding any numbers there that may possible harm their case. This data center is ridiculous beyond belief in Dutch aspects and that is even got this far in voting is solely due to the prime ministers choice to push these responsibilities toward local municipalities, a village of 30k inhabitants deciding if a power consumer equivalent of 700k inhabitants would fit in their region. The way they Facebook made their case was a joke too as they, just like Google and Microsoft argued there’d be many job opportunities and rest warmth.In addition they argued they needed to have an exception to be added to the power net which is already massively overburdened and lagging, just for the sake that the reigning party can appease their consumer. Even Eric Wiebes, the then minister of economics, meddled in this business in favour of “getting it done”. In the end our prime minister Mark Rutte who was from the same party also started to chime in to move things forward. That this was shot down was only because, indeed, the entirety of the Netherlands was against this data center and the local municipality elections came by and destroyed all the parties that voted in favour. All of a sudden the powerless Huge de Groot found a way to block this thing. It is more than a political decision but that this got blocked in the end does move me slightly away from the extreme cynism that is most apt as view on the whole of the Netherlands policital theater.
- belval 5y ago
  To me that's just the system working as intended, if people voted against it then that's that.
- Dylan16807 5y ago
  > that is even got this far in voting is solely due to the prime ministers choice to push these responsibilities toward local municipalities, a village of 30k inhabitants deciding if a power consumer equivalent of 700k inhabitants would fit in their region. I don't see why that's a problem? > added to the power net which is already massively overburdened and lagging Is that being worked on? Is there a reason the electrical payments from the datacenter couldn't be used to make the power network net better? Charge them a higher rate for the first x years if necessary.
  - colinmhayes 5y ago
    I think a large part of the problem is that they're building renewable power as fast as they can, but are still heavily reliant on Russian gas for electricity. So building this data center would increase their reliance on Russia.
    - brianwawok 5y ago
      So where does the data center go instead? Is that country not reliant on Russia?
      - clem 5y ago
        It's Meta's responsibility to justify the existence of their data center. It's not any country's responsibility to host it.
      - hetspookjee 5y ago
        Denmark as that was their secondary location i belief.
    - Dylan16807 5y ago
reacharavindh 5y ago
> largely because it’s Facebook. Yes. If all the sorely needed renewable energy were to be used for something useful,there wouldn’t be this much opposition. Using it for doom scrolling, ads, and waste of time - sure sane people are against it. I’m happy that people see through the bullshit for once. IMO, They should be allowed in only if they produce 100% of the renewable energy they could consume. Let Facebook pay the millions in windmills and solar panels, and sure, they can be part of the society.
user_7832 5y ago
> To me all parties involved seemed pretty reasonable, the previous administration was favourable to the project, but got subsequently voted out of office. Now they just want time to make sure that they didn't get voted out because of that project. Facebook seems to understand. I'm assuming your comment is in good faith, and you're not from Facebook's PR team. I don't think you're aware of the history of the case. Local opposition to the project is nothing new - starting with how Facebook hiding its identity with the locals. The full list of reasons is much more than I can comfortably type, I'd recommend reading this wired article instead - https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-dutch-data-center/ https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-dutch-data-center/

by belval 5y ago

hetspookjee 5y ago

That data center association is just a huge lobby front. Just the website in itself is a hilarious joke and a complete cherrypicked representation of some numbers. Good luck finding any numbers there that may possible harm their case. This data center is ridiculous beyond belief in Dutch aspects and that is even got this far in voting is solely due to the prime ministers choice to push these responsibilities toward local municipalities, a village of 30k inhabitants deciding if a power consumer equivalent of 700k inhabitants would fit in their region. The way they Facebook made their case was a joke too as they, just like Google and Microsoft argued there’d be many job opportunities and rest warmth.In addition they argued they needed to have an exception to be added to the power net which is already massively overburdened and lagging, just for the sake that the reigning party can appease their consumer. Even Eric Wiebes, the then minister of economics, meddled in this business in favour of “getting it done”. In the end our prime minister Mark Rutte who was from the same party also started to chime in to move things forward. That this was shot down was only because, indeed, the entirety of the Netherlands was against this data center and the local municipality elections came by and destroyed all the parties that voted in favour. All of a sudden the powerless Huge de Groot found a way to block this thing. It is more than a political decision but that this got blocked in the end does move me slightly away from the extreme cynism that is most apt as view on the whole of the Netherlands policital theater.

belval 5y ago
To me that's just the system working as intended, if people voted against it then that's that.
Dylan16807 5y ago
> that is even got this far in voting is solely due to the prime ministers choice to push these responsibilities toward local municipalities, a village of 30k inhabitants deciding if a power consumer equivalent of 700k inhabitants would fit in their region. I don't see why that's a problem? > added to the power net which is already massively overburdened and lagging Is that being worked on? Is there a reason the electrical payments from the datacenter couldn't be used to make the power network net better? Charge them a higher rate for the first x years if necessary.
- colinmhayes 5y ago
  I think a large part of the problem is that they're building renewable power as fast as they can, but are still heavily reliant on Russian gas for electricity. So building this data center would increase their reliance on Russia.
  - brianwawok 5y ago
    So where does the data center go instead? Is that country not reliant on Russia?
    - clem 5y ago
      It's Meta's responsibility to justify the existence of their data center. It's not any country's responsibility to host it.
    - hetspookjee 5y ago
      Denmark as that was their secondary location i belief.
  - Dylan16807 5y ago

reacharavindh 5y ago

> largely because it’s Facebook. Yes. If all the sorely needed renewable energy were to be used for something useful,there wouldn’t be this much opposition. Using it for doom scrolling, ads, and waste of time - sure sane people are against it. I’m happy that people see through the bullshit for once. IMO, They should be allowed in only if they produce 100% of the renewable energy they could consume. Let Facebook pay the millions in windmills and solar panels, and sure, they can be part of the society.

user_7832 5y ago

> To me all parties involved seemed pretty reasonable, the previous administration was favourable to the project, but got subsequently voted out of office. Now they just want time to make sure that they didn't get voted out because of that project. Facebook seems to understand. I'm assuming your comment is in good faith, and you're not from Facebook's PR team. I don't think you're aware of the history of the case. Local opposition to the project is nothing new - starting with how Facebook hiding its identity with the locals. The full list of reasons is much more than I can comfortably type, I'd recommend reading this wired article instead - https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-dutch-data-center/ https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-dutch-data-center/