3 ms·

Or how about this framing (using your own numbers): for every dollar a datacenter is charged for electricity, regular hard-working Americans get charged $2.

njovin 4mo ago
First they gave all the water away for free to big ag, and now they're doing the same with the power.
- mukbangpervert 4mo ago
  When they gave water to big ag, we got to buy food. With this, we pay extra to lose our jobs.
  - datadrivenangel 4mo ago
    The ag water was used to grow hay which was shipped to China and Brazil...
    - riknos314 4mo ago
      And corn which was used to make energy (as ethanol) at a fraction of the land efficiency of solar. https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/04/new-study-compares-growing-corn-for-energy-to-solar-production-its-no-contest/ https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/04/new-study-compa...
- dunWithIt 4mo ago
  Nbd sun will provide power for a few billion years still Not the political hill to die on
  - njovin 4mo ago
    The hill to die on might be the one behind your house that has a nice view of the illegal methane generators that these data centers are using, because they sure as hell aren't running on solar.
blackqueeriroh 4mo ago
Well, I think some of those hardworking Americans would be happy to pay some of those $2 because otherwise all the SaaS services and other services, platforms, and tools running in datacenters wouldn’t be accessible to them. Or did I read this wrong and somewhere it said only datacenters running inference or training for LLMs?
- doikor 4mo ago
  The thing people are pissed about is giving better rates to datacenters. Compare this to most of Europe (and Texas if I understood correctly) where the detacenters buy their electricity from the same market as everyone else (in Europe the spot market or futures) meaning they effectively pay the same price as everyone else. It’s when they do some back room deal with the local public utility to get 50% off and offload the real costs to the public when people get angry.
  - skew-aberration 4mo ago
    I don't think the mechanism is that different, and even if it was Europe, etc would have the same issue - data centers would still bid up the price for existing capacity, and the future capacity added to accommodate the dcs would be added at a higher marginal rate too because scarcity of new supply + base load nature of dc loads. So the problem will get worse before it gets better
    - doikor 4mo ago
      Yes datacenters inccrease the prices here but they don't get a cheaper price then everyone else. There is a massive difference there.
      - skew-aberration 4mo ago
        Concrete examples? Quick google only shows small discounts for DCs relative to other wholesale industrial consumers, which could be partially explained away by the flat load, lack of stability concerns, no need for power factor correction hardware, etc. I think 'bidding up the market' is the dominant mechanism, here in Australia (spot market + futures) consumer prices are projected to increase 26%.
simianwords 4mo ago
Surely that’s a different mode for of criticism than the one in the post?

njovin 4mo ago

First they gave all the water away for free to big ag, and now they're doing the same with the power.

mukbangpervert 4mo ago
When they gave water to big ag, we got to buy food. With this, we pay extra to lose our jobs.
- datadrivenangel 4mo ago
  The ag water was used to grow hay which was shipped to China and Brazil...
  - riknos314 4mo ago
    And corn which was used to make energy (as ethanol) at a fraction of the land efficiency of solar. https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/04/new-study-compares-growing-corn-for-energy-to-solar-production-its-no-contest/ https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/04/new-study-compa...
dunWithIt 4mo ago
Nbd sun will provide power for a few billion years still Not the political hill to die on
- njovin 4mo ago
  The hill to die on might be the one behind your house that has a nice view of the illegal methane generators that these data centers are using, because they sure as hell aren't running on solar.

blackqueeriroh 4mo ago

Well, I think some of those hardworking Americans would be happy to pay some of those $2 because otherwise all the SaaS services and other services, platforms, and tools running in datacenters wouldn’t be accessible to them. Or did I read this wrong and somewhere it said only datacenters running inference or training for LLMs?

doikor 4mo ago
The thing people are pissed about is giving better rates to datacenters. Compare this to most of Europe (and Texas if I understood correctly) where the detacenters buy their electricity from the same market as everyone else (in Europe the spot market or futures) meaning they effectively pay the same price as everyone else. It’s when they do some back room deal with the local public utility to get 50% off and offload the real costs to the public when people get angry.
- skew-aberration 4mo ago
  I don't think the mechanism is that different, and even if it was Europe, etc would have the same issue - data centers would still bid up the price for existing capacity, and the future capacity added to accommodate the dcs would be added at a higher marginal rate too because scarcity of new supply + base load nature of dc loads. So the problem will get worse before it gets better
  - doikor 4mo ago
    Yes datacenters inccrease the prices here but they don't get a cheaper price then everyone else. There is a massive difference there.
    - skew-aberration 4mo ago
      Concrete examples? Quick google only shows small discounts for DCs relative to other wholesale industrial consumers, which could be partially explained away by the flat load, lack of stability concerns, no need for power factor correction hardware, etc. I think 'bidding up the market' is the dominant mechanism, here in Australia (spot market + futures) consumer prices are projected to increase 26%.

simianwords 4mo ago

Surely that’s a different mode for of criticism than the one in the post?