Americans would rather have a nuclear plant in their backyard than a datacenter
www.theregister.com

... The majority of Americans are now opposed to datacenters being built in their area, many strongly opposed, pointing to tough times ahead for site developers.

A Gallup survey found more than 70 percent of respondents indicate they would be against the construction of an AI datacenter in their neighboorhood, with almost half (48 percent) saying they were strongly opposed. Only 27 percent were in favor.

The polling shows how quickly AI server farms have become politically toxic in the US, not helped by stories about their effects on energy bills, slurping up water supplies, and creating air and noise pollution in their vicinity.

To highlight this, Gallup found that more US residents are opposed to massive data halls than to having a nuclear power plant in their backyard: 53 percent of Americans oppose building a nuclear energy site nearby, compared with the 71 percent against datacenter construction. ...

Energy supplier abandons Lake Tahoe residents to serve data centers
arstechnica.com

... The tourist and ski resort town of Lake Tahoe must scramble to find a new energy supplier by May 2027 -- the result of a Nevada utility company saying it needs the power capacity in part for new data centers.

The resulting energy crisis impacts 49,000 California residents who live near Lake Tahoe, nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains on the border between California and Nevada.

Lake Tahoe's local electricity provider, California-based Liberty Utilities, has been obtaining 75 percent of its power from the Nevada-based company NV Energy. But the latter has said it will stop providing power to the Lake Tahoe region by May 2027, according to extensive reporting by Fortune.

Nevada's fast-growing data center development is one of the main reasons given by NV Energy for ending its energy supply agreement with Liberty, according to a Liberty filing with California regulators. Fortune highlighted data from NV Energy's own planning documents showing that a dozen data center projects in northern Nevada could drive 5,900 megawatts of new demand by 2033. ...