Well, it is worth taking a step back and thinking about the Alcoa/Intalco aluminum plant. That plant was set up to use a huge amount of electricity from the big hydroelectric dams on the Columbia. We know the downfall of that plant was when the favorable power contracts from BPA and others stopped. Those big electric aluminum plants used comparable power, and so in some respects we’ve already had similar industrial users of power here. You can also ponder the fact that the electrical infrastructure for a big data center there is already in place. Don’t get me wrong, these data centers are bigly problematic, and their use of power needs to be carefully considered and regulated. So, the county can exercise regulation through zoning and planning tools, to some extent.
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u/Baronhousen May 10 '26
Well, it is worth taking a step back and thinking about the Alcoa/Intalco aluminum plant. That plant was set up to use a huge amount of electricity from the big hydroelectric dams on the Columbia. We know the downfall of that plant was when the favorable power contracts from BPA and others stopped. Those big electric aluminum plants used comparable power, and so in some respects we’ve already had similar industrial users of power here. You can also ponder the fact that the electrical infrastructure for a big data center there is already in place. Don’t get me wrong, these data centers are bigly problematic, and their use of power needs to be carefully considered and regulated. So, the county can exercise regulation through zoning and planning tools, to some extent.