Dem
47
GOP
53
Increasingly many people oppose AI data centers for two reasons: (1) NIMBY (electricity and water rates) and (2) jobs. Data centers are becoming a hot political issue and politicians are being forced to take a stand. Being against them brings in votes, but it also brings in industry dollars for the candidate's opponent.
In battles between giant corporations and the people, Republicans are instinctively on the side of the corporations. Only now, they sense danger in that. So in an attempt to preempt their opponents, they have come up with a pledge to try to paper this over. It is called the Ratepayer Protection Pledge. Note that it is a pledge, not a bill that would have the force of law if passed. Just a promise by data center companies to pay a fair rate for electricity and water. In other words, once a data center got built, the company could change its mind on the pledge. It is basically meaningless, but when a company proposes a data center, it can wave the pledge at the locals and hope that they fall for it.
New York is going in a different direction. Gov. Kathy Kochul (D-NY) has signed an XO pausing all new hyperscale data centers in the state. She has no faith in meaningless pledges. She is also running for reelection. There could be a relation between these two bits of data, we're just not sure. Maybe we should ask AI. (V)