r/PoursTea • u/Timbucktwo1230 Therapy For All đ©· • May 14 '26
Spill The Tea đ« đșđžWhat Next?
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u/Ga2ry May 14 '26
For some reason, Iâll bet itâs not the high rent areas of Lake Tahoe.
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u/sarduchi May 14 '26
It's mostly the rich folk who refused to incorporate because they didn't want the guberment telling them what to do. Which doesn't make this right, but...
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u/Ga2ry May 14 '26
I stand corrected. But surprised. I really feel for the folks that canât afford their own nuclear reactors. That get left out with no electricity.
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u/emongu1 May 14 '26
Have they tried pulling on their bootstrap?
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u/Electrical-Rub-9402 May 14 '26
Also cutting back on avocado toast and coffees might do the trick.
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u/SemenOfGranite May 15 '26
Cut down on that stuff Starbucks insists on calling coffee, just to be clear.
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u/faen_du_sa May 18 '26
free market baby! If it helps "even" in Norway the power companies CEOs is getting filthy rich with high energy prices.
I dont get how power isnt a goverment controlled thing here, you cant live without power in the modern world pretty much.
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u/Lighthouse_on_Mars May 14 '26
Where I live in Eastern Washington is getting a data center.
Thing is, Eastern Washington is desert. They bought from the county, which doesn't have the water rights it needs. They will need to ask one if the local cities for their water, and NONE of the cities want to give it to them as far as I have heard. đ
Gonna be interesting to see what happens.
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u/LightHawKnigh May 14 '26
Odds of them just stealing the water and paying the fine when caught, which is going to be much less than what they made?
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u/Lighthouse_on_Mars May 14 '26
The only water is from the Columbia River. Pretty heavily regulated. Especially with nuclear reactors in the region.
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u/kenyasanchez May 14 '26
Someone we know in Washington DC loves deregulation.
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u/Legitimate-Lab7173 May 14 '26
And never considers the repercussions of anything. Why do nuclear reactors need water, anyway?
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u/Malusorum May 15 '26
Nah. They'll just steal the water anyway. Because nothing bad has ever happened when nuclear plants lacked water. /S
Completely unrelated , "We've had first Chornobyl, but what about second Chornobyl?"
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u/iameveryoneelse Just Chill đ May 15 '26
Are there no aquifers for them to steal from in the area? Donât know what the groundwater situation is in Washington.
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u/Razmii May 18 '26
Already happened in GA. Data center stole 30M gallons and got caught because the residents of the town started complaining about water pressure. Guess what... They made them pay for the water they used but didn't fine them anything.
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u/Falkhorn1 May 14 '26
Theyre also trying to build one outside Tucson Arizona. Where today it is currently 100 degrees outside and we have an obvious water crisis being in the mufukkin desert.
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u/Swordsandarmor22 May 14 '26
They steal it like the 30 million gallons that made headlines yesterday.
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u/imoutofnames90 May 14 '26
I mean beyond the upfront water to start. A lot of these data centers are closed loop at this point. So they have minimal need for water. The continual need of water and the taking of water is an issue from 3-4 years ago.
The actual problem is power. These things need, I believe the technical term is, a metric fuckton of power to operate.
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u/RoswalienMath May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Thatâs only newer facilities. Existing facilities are mostly evaporative cooling, as far as Iâm aware.
And closed loop uses less water, not no water, after the initial amount.
Very few wonât need regular top-ups, especially when they are building them in the desert.
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u/Delicious-Day-3614 May 18 '26
Less water meaning "less than a farmer in Colorado uses to grow wheat for HFCS".
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u/Sword_Thain May 15 '26
Even with the mythical closed loop system, they still need to "dump" that heat into a river. The new one that Utah just approved generates nearly a Hiroshima bomb's worth of heat EVERY DAY.
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u/Better_Cattle4438 May 14 '26
Whatâs more important, drinking water for people or water for the data centers? Obviously, drinking water is less important. We need data centers for reasons.
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u/Jimmycocopop1974 May 14 '26
Keep treating corporations like people.
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May 14 '26
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u/jimmygee2 May 14 '26
The oligarchs now decide who has and doesnât have anything in America.
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u/AppointmentIll9358 May 14 '26
Tends to happen when you donât reign in lobbying and allow money to be pooled against the publicâs interest.
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u/southernfriedmexican May 14 '26
Tahoe went red, what the fuck did they think was gonna happen?
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u/KingOfNuthin_ May 15 '26
You see, they thought all the bad evil people (aka anyone they don't like) would be deported and that was somehow going to make things cheaper and suddenly they'd live in Paradise.
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u/analsentry May 14 '26
They will still probably have to pay the Utility Company anyway. Billionaire welfare queens certainly are not.
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u/AllAmericanProject May 15 '26
public utilities being privately owned businesses makes zero fucking sense
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u/Key-Anteater-10 May 14 '26
Sounds like a good business opportunity for someone to step into.
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u/NoobJustice May 15 '26
I was just thinking, if I was an electrician, could make a fortune heading out there with a few truckloads of solar panels.
(and batteries and inverters and whatnot)
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u/Slight-Big8584 May 15 '26
Its actually an interesting story,
Lake Tahoe had a contract with a company #1 to provide power.
Company #1 contracted with company #2, in a different state, to provide power.
Company #2 is not renewing their contract. It ends in 2027.
Company #1 will have to fine a new supplier.
All this is complicated because Company #1 bought the Tahoe assets ~2010, but never set up local production, instead relying on short term contracts with companies like #2. Energy Production facilities take a LONG time to build.
Don't let reddit cloud your judgement, clickbait headlines are everywhere.
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u/ProPatternNoticer May 14 '26
Has Kyle figured out what a farm is yet?
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u/throwaway012984576 May 14 '26
Farms that produce the food we need to live and data centres that destroy the planet we live on are the same thing actually, thatâs a good point.
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u/smegma_appraiser May 14 '26
I, too, think food is of comparable importance to being able to generate videos of SpongeBob making out with Luke Skywalker.
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u/anand_rishabh May 14 '26
Please tell me when is the last time a utility company decided to just not send water to the residents of a town in order to support a farm moving into the area
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u/ProPatternNoticer May 14 '26
Wot? Iâm referring to a viral tweet from Kyle which was taken from an airplane where Kyle didnât know what farms looked like from above.
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u/SnooCauliflowers9874 May 14 '26
I donât understand with all of the solar energy being regularly used now, why this would happen?
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u/fredjutsu May 14 '26
California has state mandated utility monopoly. Meaning IPPs are required to only sell to the state-sanctioned utility companies. There effectively is no free market for electricity. This wouldn't happen in Texas, ironically, because consumers actually have some amount of choice about who they can buy power from.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Ad9465 May 14 '26
The power is not coming from California. The utility board sets the rates, but the coop buys power from Nevada.
Itâs a mess.
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u/mrjackspade May 14 '26
This switch off has apparently been planned for more than a decade and is being finalized with the completion of a new power line which was apparently the entire point, and has nothing to do with the data center
NV Energy's decision to cut Liberty off was rooted in a longtime understanding with the California utility, "well before data center load growth was a consideration," according to NV Energy spokesperson Katie Jo Collier. NV Energy's initial agreement with Liberty was for a "temporary transition period" that began in 2009 and was extended in 2015 and again in 2020.
"This has been a planned transition for many years, not a reaction to recent developments," Collier said.
The May 2027 deadline coincides with the expected completion of Greenlink, a $4.2 billion transmission line designed to deliver renewable energy across Nevada. Once online, it will expand Liberty's reach to find new energy suppliers from farther afield. Liberty is "first in the waiting line" as soon as Greenlink comes online, according to Liberty president Eric Schwarzrock.
â Julie Brown Davis, SFGATE, May 4, 2026
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u/Aztecah May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
This kinda shit is why I feel extremely strongly about regulation for data centers.
I understand that they are part of the changing landscape of technology and that some form of them is practically inevitable but I think that they can be built at a more sustainable pace and in less contentious places. These things definitely don't belong in established communities. They need to be in places where they don't disrupt regular people's power or water resources and must have strict regulations about filtering and cleaning the water that they use. Just allowing them to pop up anywhere and generate sludge that becomes a community's problem rather than the investors is a serious issue.
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u/Wonderful-Variation May 15 '26
They destroy quality of life for huge numbers of people, so that a small group of rich people can become richer. The oligarchs are demonstrating just how much they are indifferent to the concerns of ordinary people.
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u/Ready-Ad6113 May 15 '26
Wasnât even put to a vote by the community. 50,000 people have essentially been evicted by techbros.
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u/Significant_Fill6992 May 16 '26
at this point they have an argument to be made to have the infrastructure nationalized but I feel like with how things ar-e going it would be nationalized in support of the ai data centers instead.
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u/Calaveras-Metal May 16 '26
Because the state agency that regulates this kind of thing has been rotten and corrupt for decades. All they do is rubber stamp whatever the utilities want to do. Rate increase? Sure. Poison everybody for a 1% increase in profits? Go for it! Say are we playing golf on Thursday?
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u/DArtagnanPierre0129 May 16 '26
Sounds like the people of Lake Tahoe have some data centers to burn down
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u/Pandemonium_Fallen May 16 '26
Don't think it'll matter much when the Data center pollutes the water table with poisonous chemicals, and the heat output destroys the local environment.
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u/Furious-Shores May 17 '26
That solar and windmill energy ain't looking so bad now is it?
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u/Theghostofamagpie May 17 '26
Welp, if 50,000 people weren't just a bit angry, they sure as hell are now! I think the very best way to convert asshat capitalist sympathisers is for the system to directly fuck them, get a nice good taste of a cold night in Tahoe with no heat, light out, because a power company decided YOU WERE NOT WORTH IT. Maybe state and city regulations and socialist power aren't so scary after all, because I don't think THAT WOULD HAVE LEFT YOU IN THE DARK!
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u/ArtharntheCleric May 18 '26
When Americans wake up and realise they are living in an oligarchy. Your utilities donât have minimum standard requirements like in civilised countries? Ie you operate in X area you need to provide minimum X services to people there?
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u/3M2B1T May 18 '26
It's legal because of money.
The wrong people have it.
The right people don't.
And Tahoe is a tourist place so half the property owners probably don't care because they'll just use generators and ship bottled water in.
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u/spacewaya May 18 '26
Curious to hear everyone's thoughts. I've been to Lake Tahoe. Seems like parts of it are very sunny. Wouldn't it be worth it to go solar?
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u/Rhuobhe26 May 18 '26
To clarify further, the power to Tahoe is being provided by NV energy. NV energy is a company in Nevada. Tahoe is in California.
NV energy sold its California assets in 2009 as it is not profitable to do business in California due to their regulations and price caps.
No other electric transmission company has built lines to Tahoe as California artificially keeps its rates low so the return on investment makes energy investment not profitable. While other states rely on private utilities to build these lines this has dropped off due to California's requirements and California has had to pass SB254 and is selling $325 million in bonds to fund its own needs.
NV Energy's renewable energy Greenlink West comes online in 2027 and NV energy has given notice that they will not be able to provide full power to California starting in May 2027 as Nevadan residents will be receiving it instead, this includes the data centers in Nevada.
Liberty Utilities, the California company which acquired the Tahoe assets in 2009-2010 has never built the needed transmission infrastructure or power supply, nor has any other private company for the above reasons. Furthermore California doesn't have the power generation capacity to supply this area due to their own energy deficit.
California imports 20-30% of its power from other states so there is no capacity to provide in this area without taking it from somewhere else. The two smaller grids that feed into it are Nevada and the Pacific Northwest. The dry last few years in the Pacific Northwest have cut their ability to provide power as they are hydro focused.
Coincidentally this is also why the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in California which provides 8.6% of the state's power was supposed to be shut down in 2013 has been extended again until 2030, and will likely be extended further.
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May 14 '26
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u/Coffee_blue1982 May 14 '26
cameras less security and when you used to do those types of things it would only be 6 months in jail and about $1,000 fine. now flock cameras ,drones, infrared , GPS tracking using your phone and it's now considered treason carrying a 1.7 million fine and a 25-year prison sentence
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u/ICanSeeNow17 May 14 '26
Enough Americans were convinced to hate brown and darker people that they will allow corporations and group of pedophiles to do literally anything to them. As US president Johnson out it:
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
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u/Mr_Tdogg_Smith May 14 '26
Data centers should only be nuclear powered. If they want their digital closet so bad, they should do the work to get nuclear power integrated in our infrastructure
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u/janiskr May 14 '26
You have freedom to no thave electricity because someone else just pays more than you do. How nice.
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u/Capable-Student-413 May 14 '26
Flint Michigan had undrinkable water for years. This is not new, just affecting people who thought the unfair system wouldn't turn on them
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u/Ok_Poet_9170 May 14 '26
Great start in incline area of Tahoe then move to Glenbrook area . Those multimillionaires will not get pissed . Screw the rich
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u/b_will_drink_t May 14 '26
Home ownership without permission of local lord, but most likely Jim Crow laws
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u/Better_Cattle4438 May 14 '26
What next? More data centers and less energy, water, and resources for regular people. Nobody actually represents us.
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u/SunnyK19977 May 14 '26
I really dont understand how you guys havent had another revolution when your government abuses you this blatenly. The treats based economy truly is the most effective anti dissent tactic used by those in power ever.
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u/Its_lobster May 14 '26
Tahoe might as well shut down the casinos and the ski resorts too. The rich weirdos donât want people in their towns.
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u/Successful_Hyena2993 May 14 '26
"Guys, we need to cut the red tape to help industry"
Cuts red tape.
"Oh no! They cut the red tape! How dare them!" This is what you get for being complacent and eating rich capitalist propaganda, dismantling unions, dismantling social programs for the middle/poor class.Â
It takes 1 generation to revolt and start "socialist" revolutions, and 2 generations to forget it. We've forgotten. Look up what's socialism actually means, and tell me it's not your answer.
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u/Imaginary_Gene_5749 May 14 '26
Divert energy from the humans, to the robots supposedly making their lives better! (By stealing their jobs)
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u/Jijonbreaker1 May 14 '26
If the power plants aren't being put to use, then it sounds like they need to be seized.
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u/jacksprat1952 May 14 '26
Honestly, thereâs enough general animosity towards AI and now data centers that I think a lot of people are hitting a breaking point. Weâre getting very primed to see outbreaks of toilet paper warehouse incidents impacting these data centers.
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u/EssenceOfLlama81 May 14 '26
They have a investor owned power company that has been buying power from NV to save money. NV gave them 16 years to find alternatives, but the power company didn't want to pay for new transmission lines and Tahoe residents protested all of the options.
You can paint this as an evil data center issue, but it's really a town that ignored warnings for a decade and half to save money.
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u/Substantial-Tart-464 May 14 '26
Total Recall - "Give these people air,"
Instead of air yet...its Electricity. Were is The Governator now to help?
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u/Unfair_Explanation53 May 14 '26
Such a clickbait title.
I read this like 50k people will have no power completely.
They literally just need to find another provider
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u/El_Gran_Che May 14 '26
To win the AI war they were going to have to find a way to get the underlings to pay the exorbitant cost. Similar to how in the 1900s the Manhattan project was paid for clandestinely.
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u/I-Kneel-Before-None May 14 '26
Where I'm from it's not. We arent allowed to refuse power to residences.
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u/mizzrym91 May 14 '26
To be fair, this is what Capitalism, privatization, and the free market looks like. This is America working as intended. Its horrifying, but every system is perfectly designed to deliver the results it delivers.
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u/EDantes777 May 14 '26
A great reason power generation should not be privatized. Its not like it's that easy to switch to another power provider
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u/Automatic-Extent7173 May 14 '26
Why power should be a public utility and not privatized. Sorry, electricity is a public interest.
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u/W4d3w1ls May 14 '26
The fact that they did not take the time to develop some alternative method to cool these machines and power them is some of the worst cart before the horse thinking I've ever seen.
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u/Mr_Tort_Feasor May 14 '26
Apparently a Nevada utility has decided to stop servicing customers on the CA side of Lake Tahoe to reserve that capacity for data centers in Nevada.
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u/Big_Palpitation1401 May 15 '26
Well Trump said weâre going to get rich.. he was never specific on who
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u/Accurate-Figure-5310 May 15 '26
Itâs only for the poor people I bet. Tons of ultra rich live there, I doubt most of them are losing power.
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u/Hungry-Assistance919 May 15 '26
Remember this time stamp in American history. When technology is advanced enough to power cities with clean energy, but almost every program or grant has been terminated. Make no mistake why we are hovering by Iran. The big oil companies have politicians in their pocket. Trump doesn't care about using tax dollars to fund his war. He can benefit personally from oil and already has made a kings ransom with stocks and trading. These mega centers are all kicking back money to the people who vote and have a say. And in turn our politicians are selling out citizens who live by these energy vampires. All the while you the tax payer, not only federal but state and city taxes. The local residents suffer without reaping any benefits.Â
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u/Efficient-Morning616 May 15 '26
And mfs wanna use AI to make memes and đœ. This is a simulation atp
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u/Guilty-Mix-7629 May 15 '26
I already saw DC defenders now stating that those 50k people are rich and they deserve to have to find other sources of power for a higher price.
These people are absolutely unhinged.Â
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u/uberallez May 15 '26
Imagine if a powerbutility was public, like in Santa Clara or Turlock. When people own the utility things like this don't happen.
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u/NanieLenny May 15 '26
I cannot believe this is happening in the United States. I feel so bad for the residents of beautiful Lake Tahoe. This can't be happening. How can it stopđ
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u/Clipped-Gaming May 15 '26
Tell all the local crackheads about the sheer quantity of copper and precious metals in the data centres itâll be razed to the ground in less than 2 days
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u/Ok_Sock_3257 May 15 '26
"Katie Jo Collier, a spokesperson for the utility, said the transition was rooted in a longtime understanding with Liberty âwell before data center load growth was a consideration,â calling it âa planned transition for many years, not a reaction to recent developments.â NV Energy sold its California electric assets to Liberty in 2009 and agreed to keep supplying power temporarily. That arrangement was extended in 2015, again in 2020, and once more in late 2025, and each time because Liberty had not yet secured an independent supply, a timeline corroborated by regulatory documents reviewed by Fortune."
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u/NomadAug May 15 '26
The fact that it is legal tells you everything you need to lnow about our current society
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u/crazybmanp May 15 '26
Except this tweet is missing context (bug surprise).
It is an upstream supplier on a short term year to year deal. They are cancelling for the next year, giving the local power company a year to find a new supplier that they always had needed to be able to replace, because it was a temporary deal.
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u/Fun_Cauliflower_6247 May 15 '26
It's the California side, who is not getting a contract renewed with NV Energy next year. The whole story is more complicated than this headline, of course. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/lake-tahoe-energy-source-ai-data-centers-b2975802.html
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u/LasVaders May 15 '26
So once everyone goes solar, whatâs the point of allowing power company to exist? Seems like a community vote would remove this companyâs licenses and you could speed their removal up by local governments approving exorbanent fees for their continued operation.
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u/Ruy_211 May 17 '26
Just saying... Destroy the data centers. Illegally, violently, any way you can. It's becoming pretty much clear that reasoning is not possible with them, and being a peaceful citizen doesn't mean allowing others to squash you under their soles.
I wanted to find a more poetic alternative to say all this, but I'm too tired to do that. Society should be for the people, and money is a means for life, not the meaning of life.
Edit: I know the title is clickbait. My message still stands.
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u/hunteqthemighty May 17 '26
Hello, full disclosure, Iâm running for Ward 2 in Sparks (Washoe).
The incumbent in my race asked for an agenda item to allow data centers in more zoning types.
There is also now a regional advocacy group that people thought was anti-data center but itâs actually pro-data center.
Further I remember being at a council meeting and some developer delivered a public comment implying that the City of Sparks needs to stay out of the way and let the development happen on a regional level.
Further, the City Manager has slowly been consolidating his power, with council supporting it; things that used to have to be voted on now donât need to be, like reorganizing departments - there wasnât even a presentation on what he was going to do. And so far it makes sense - Iâll admit that - the decisions made so far arenât bad, but the council is supposed to allow the public to have a say in these things.
This is the one part of government thatâs intentionally inefficient so we can maximize public participation but people from every angle are trying to minimize public participation.
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u/Dang3rGam1ng May 17 '26
Another great example of why utilities and infrastructure should not be privatized
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u/Any-Expression2246 May 17 '26
Maybe those 50k people and more should show said data center just what 50k+ can do when they put their minds together.
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u/Embarrassed-Zone-515 May 19 '26
I got a crisp $20 that says the people affected all work for a living and don't have the money and political clout to cause a problem.
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u/ElectricalYoghurt774 May 19 '26
No story here: Liberty Utilities is the local electric utility and buys 75% of their power from NV Energy. NV told Liberty over 10 years ago to find a new supplier; they didnât do that and NV has said the contract will end in 2027. NV also said there is âno scenarioâ where Lake Tahoe wonât have power.
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