“...this is a good time for him to intervene. ;-)”
Amen to that!
Another concern is all the AI ‘Data Farms’ that are sprouting up. WI already has one near Beaver Dam and another one planned near De Forest - and maybe a Buc-ee’s out there, too! And the new Amazon ‘facility’ is going up outside of Cottage Grove - it looks like a Super Max Prison! Those buildings are going to deplete groundwater and hog up all the electricity for miles around. They are all located in small towns.
Hard to believe the EnviroWeenies aren’t swingin’ from the chandeliers over these massive buildings and energy hogs.
Here’s my understanding of those issues:
Most of the fear about data centers “using up all the water” comes from older facilities that relied on evaporative cooling. I think the new AI data centers being built in Wisconsin are using closed-loop or air-based cooling systems that don’t significantly consume groundwater. They’re basically giant radiators—the same water circulates and doesn’t get evaporated. Counties now require this, and Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon have to document their water usage publicly.
As for energy, it’s true that AI data centers draw huge amounts of power, but the idea that they’ll “hog up electricity for miles” overlooks the fact that the entire U.S. grid is already being upgraded to meet this new demand. Utilities are adding new power plants, new substations, new transmission lines, and new high-voltage infrastructure specifically because AI is forcing a modernization of the grid. That work is already ramping up.