For years, policymakers and regulators have created a hostile regulatory environment for America’s tech sector. This “techlash” has usually manifested in the form of various proposals targeting these companies’ core products. This includes services like social media, app stores, or online commerce. However, these regulatory efforts have been largely unsuccessful, and now the misguided anti-tech crowd seems to have pivoted toward attacking data centers. Data centers are part of  the vital infrastructure behind consumer-facing services, and they now find themselves in the crosshairs. By weaponizing permitting and zoning laws, emissions and electricity regulations, and tax hikes, policymakers aim to sabotage operations altogether. Policymakers should not fall prey to the anti-tech rhetoric disguised as environmental and energy concerns. As Americans continue to lead increasingly digital lives and artificial intelligence (AI) development continues to soar, computing power has become a precious resource. This has spurred a need for companies to set up data centers in various regions of the country. These have become necessary infrastructure for the modern digital economy. State governments across the country were initially enthusiastic about the prospect of hosting data centers within their borders. These facilities often translated into multi-million-dollar land and construction investments and increases in property tax revenues. Some states were perhaps too enthusiastic, offering myriad tax credits and utility rate discounts in what could be considered state-level industrial policy efforts.  More Energy for Data Centers Unsurprisingly, data centers’ resource-intensive operation requires a significant amount of energy to run properly. This has given anti-tech politicians the perfect excuse to put forward hostile regulations, as the country struggles with a strained energy grid. Under the guise of protecting the energy grid or limiting emissions, local and state governments have enacted regulations that limit companies’ ability to build new data centers.  By constraining fuel choices for backup generators, or raising fees for their basic infrastructure, governments have put the squeeze on America’s tech sector. For example, Arizona, Illinois, and Arkansas passed laws that either suspended data center development or restricted where they can be built. Prince William County in Virginia recently passed a tax hike of 70 percent on their computer equipment.  While a strained electric grid in an increasingly digital economy is a cause for concern, a lot of claims about data centers tend to be hyperbolic or ignorant. Data centers have an economic incentive to lower their energy consumption as much as possible, as energy costs are one of their main operational costs. Not for nothing, most of the data center operators sign lengthy power-purchase agreements to lock-in energy rates to constrain these costs. Not only do they push for a lower rate, but they aim to use energy more efficiently, investing millions of dollars into research and development to optimize their energy consumption. In addition, data centers are a perfect example of an economy of scale producing greater efficiency. It is undoubtedly more energy efficient for hospitals, offices, manufacturers, and other data-intensive industries to contract with data centers versus each running their own server farms. Some companies have even gone so far as developing self-powered centers. In some cases, these facilities have gone from being energy consumers to being energy providers, sending off excess energy back to the grid. Ultimately, in an economy that increasingly relies on digital commerce — and will likely become more dependent on AI — purposefully limiting the country’s computing power would be a strategical blunder. While some politically motivated actors feel compelled to attack the tech industry’s operation by crippling its operating capacity, it will be consumers who will face the costs of diminished computing power. It could also harm the provision of basic government services. If emergency lines like the 911 line are embracing AI to optimize their operations, undermining data center capacity would be an ill-advised policy.  This all goes without mentioning the security tradeoffs of penalizing data center development and storage in the United States. Government’s should avoid unintentionally incentivizing data centers that serve Americans to move overseas. Policymakers should not fall prey to the anti-tech rhetoric disguised as environmental and energy concerns that surrounds these data center bills. Instead of stifling the United States’ computing capacity, policymakers should find ways to maximize its energy production and aid these data centers in becoming more energy efficient. Prioritizing permitting reform, for example, can help them develop the necessary infrastructure to offset their energy consumption in a cost-efficient and timely manner. Juan Londoño is a senior policy analyst at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.  READ MORE: Harris Can Avoid Reporters But Not Economics America Needs a Rational Energy Policy The post Don’t Regulate Data Centers Out of Existence appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

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"Grandpa, what's a Psyop?" pic.twitter.com/8GzZ13a2Vw — Keri Smith ?Deprogrammed (@RealKeriSmith) August 17, 2024

by Mac Slavo, SHTF Plan: The Israel-Gaza war has reached a bloody new milestone. Over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched an incursion and war on Hamas following the group’s October 7th attack on the Jewish state’s civilians. The health ministry in the enclave said Thursday, that this is yet another dark milestone in […]

Charles and Heather Maude, both 39, of Caputa, South Dakota, were separately served grand jury indictments on June 24. According to Cowboy State Daily, the charge is alleged theft of government property by Forest Service Special Agent Travis Lunders. He showed up at their door unannounced, armed, and in full tactical gear. The Agent came […] The post Farming Family Faces 10 Years in Prison Over an Approved Fence appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump took aim at Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris during a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania over many of the policy proposals that she has previously signaled that she supports. Trump highlighted Harris’ remarks where she said she wants to eliminate private health insurance and give illegal aliens in the U.S. healthcare. “Kamala Harris wants to eliminate private health insurance and give free tax-payer funded healthcare to every single illegal alien in this country,” he said. “And then you wonder, why do they come up? You know why they come up? Because guys like [California Governor Gavin] Newsom and others are saying, ‘Come up. Come to our country will give you health care.'” Trump noted that the millions of illegal aliens who have flooded into the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration have taken away from services meant for Americans, like children being displaced at their schools to make room for illegal aliens. “People are taking the seats of your children, your children can’t go to school, and you have people taking their seats that don’t speak a word of English, come from a foreign country, and your kids aren’t getting educated,” he said. “Your kids are not getting educated. They’re considered like secondary citizens. And this is Kamala and Joe to a lesser extent. Look, Joe’s lost … forget him.” Trump said that he would leave the Affordable Care Act in place unless Republicans can find a “better” system to implement. Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you. “We’ll keep it, but we can do much better. It’s too expensive for the people,” he said. “They can’t afford it. It’s lousy health care. If we can do something better, we’re working on it, if we can do something better, but we will never let anybody touch it unless we have something better.” “We’re going to deliver lower prices, lower drug costs, and new options that will dramatically reduce the crushing burden on all American patients and Kamala and crooked Joe, they try and take credit for $35 insulin, but I was the one that did the $35 insulin, not them,” he concluded. WATCH: PRESIDENT TRUMP: Kamala Harris wants to eliminate private health insurance and give free tax-payer funded healthcare to every single illegal alien in this country. By contrast, I am going to keep the Affordable Care Act unless we can do something much better, and by better, I’m… pic.twitter.com/1NyYQ0mu16 — Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 17, 2024