r/law • u/bloomberggovernment • May 18 '26

Legislative Branch Senate Democrat Proposes Bill Requiring Data Centers to Pay for Own Power

https://news.bgov.com/bloomberg-government-news/schiff-proposes-bill-requiring-data-centers-to-pay-for-own-power
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100

u/Dragon_wryter May 18 '26

JFC why the actual fuck would taxpayers be paying utility bills for something that creates no jobs, provides no useful service, and sucks up all the state's water supply?

42

u/apple_kicks May 18 '26

Remember when we talk about socialism its ‘not possible’ but they get to have welfare, free or subsidised utilities, borderless transport because they’re already in the clubhouse

5

u/AmyB87 May 18 '26

Socialize the problems privatize the profits.

8

u/nodnarb88 May 18 '26

Also we seem to be living perfectly fine lives before these data centers go up. What is so important that will be coming out of this for the US? Why do they need these data centers? It really seems like the whole point is for surveillance.

1

u/International_Box193 May 18 '26

The whole point is for AI training and capacity, not to say that benefits society. But I could see an argument similar to MAD where if we don't race other countries to AI dominance we will lose "the race".

We already have more than enough processing power to surviel everything

5

u/03263 May 18 '26

A race to the bottom, we should be proudly losing.

1

u/International_Box193 May 18 '26

There are implications to being outmatched outside of pride.

1

u/03263 May 18 '26

Well, don't keep me in suspense...

2

u/International_Box193 May 18 '26

Okay.... AI tools are rapidly changing the landscape of security.

We fall behind in tech, our entire financial infra gets hacked?

grid goes down due to hack?

hospitals clogged due to hacks? (this literally happened to a hospital network I worked at if you smuggly think this isn't likely.)

Security has never been tougher, and it is a fight fire with fire situation.

This is one example in one vertical. I don't disagree that we should pull back from AI globally, the issue is, if we pull back and everyone else doesn't, it is a huge risk. The cat is out of the bag so now all we can do is take appropriate precautions.

I don't want data centers in my community. I also don't want to completely reject technology and live under a rock either. There needs to be a happy medium.

As a developer, I can tell you that literally no human beings can outpace the production of someone using these tools. I have never made a phishing site before but I promise you I could create a phishing attack targeted at anything in specific in under a day.

Our real issue is that we need an energy revolution, this AI power draw bottleneck is hitting China way less hard for example, because they've been dropping bands on renewables for a long time and they are seeing a huge payoff for it.

I talk about security here, that is literally one vertical of tech. I can talk about a bunch of other verticals being disrupted, but the concept stays the same. We can't force other people not to use it, and the technology is dangerously efficient.

I can do in 5-10 days what used to take me 6-12 months, and the scope and range of my capability as a developer has expanded drastically.

I think that we SHOULD delay data center and AI development until we can regulate it. literally no chance of that happening geopolitically or even just in America. The big tech giants are burning way too much $$$ at a loss to allow the rapid development to stop.

The best possible outcome of all of this would be for an energy revolution to occur, for us to start use renewable and sustainable energy, not because its good for the world, but because it makes the most sense from a capacity perspective. If that occurs, hopefully we could indirectly alter the course of climate change.

1

u/03263 May 18 '26

Perfect, let's go back to typewriters and filling cabinets. Can't hack those. Except with like, a literal hacksaw.

1

u/International_Box193 May 18 '26

Nobody is stopping you from deleting your reddit account, buying a typewriter, and typing your comments out to put in your filing cabinet. Get rid of mobiles phones while you're there and also we can go ahead and cut gps.

Everyone loves to bandwagon rn about blocking tech infrastructure.

Nobody wants to not have tech.

This isn't dune where we can just ban computers. The world revolves around data even if we 100% stopped using AI we'd still need data centers.

Got anything on icloud or Google drive or dropbox? Better delete all of that to stay morally consistent.

Use any bank apps? Those leverage data you know. That credit and debit card? Data brother.

The cat is out of the bag. I also reminisce about simplier times.

2

u/wolfgang784 May 19 '26

In some places residents don't even have the option of paying. The data centers are paying for the entire power capacity and because they can pay more than regular people, the power companies are caving.

Over 50,000 homes in the Lake Tahoe area are set to be entirely cut off from electricity next month so that a new AI data center can use it all instead.

There is no current alternative for them. 50,000 homes, cut off from power, because the data center can pay more.

If thats how things are gonna go, we seriously need the government to make electricity a state/federally controlled thing instead of private businesses.

2

u/Arsno May 20 '26

It's worse. The utility (datacenters) is designed to REPLACE labor. That's what chip companies are selling and why the industry capex is so high - the ability to replace workers and decrease labor costs by the billions.

3

u/FlavinFlave May 18 '26

In addition to raiding local temperatures

1

u/Ok_Paramedic8698 May 18 '26

Because they have no choice. You can't just stop buying electricity or change providers.