Bipartisan mistake | Pols applaud Google investing $9B in data center capacity in Virginia

Google is investing an additional $9 billion in data centers in Virginia. This is supposed to be treated as good news – that we’re going to get more of these electricity hogs and environment killers costing us more on our electric bills and competing with us for fresh water, not to mention the noise.

“Google’s $9 billion investment in Virginia is a powerful endorsement of our Commonwealth’s leadership in the AI economy. As AI is increasingly part of every aspect of work, this project reinforces our commitment to preparing Virginians for the future,” said Gov. Glenn Youngkin, whose office is taking the lead on announcing the development of a new data center in Chesterfield County and the expansion of the existing facilities in Loudoun County and Prince William County.

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ICYMI

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The press release from his office made it all about MAGA, but the PR from Google included a quote from Jennifer McClellan, a Democrat who represents Chesterfield County in Congress, so, this is bipartisan BS here, this undue celebration of more and bigger data centers coming online.

“Google’s investment in Virginia underscores our Commonwealth’s position as a leader in technology, innovation and clean energy,” McClellan said, which, what, clean energy?

Google claims in its press release that it operates “some of the industry’s most energy-efficient data centers, and is committed to responsibly growing its infrastructure and applying AI to increase overall energy availability.”

Reality: in 2024, Google data centers used 30.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity, more than double what they used four years earlier, according to Google itself, and a report from TechCrunch tells us that the company “has already picked most of the low-hanging fruit” from its internal efficiency efforts.

It’s fool’s gold, acting like data centers are anything but what they are – horrible for the environment, disasters for people who live near them, and get to pay higher electric and water bills for the privilege.

They’re not even good for local governments – Youngkin’s office touted in its press release that “Google is eligible for Data Center Sales and Use tax exemptions on qualifying computer equipment and enabling software.”

I probably would have left that part out, personally, if it was me writing it.

So, what do we get from this, then, other than a host of inconveniences?

“Google’s investments in technical infrastructure and AI skills development help to ensure that people across Virginia and across the United States have access to opportunity in this exciting era of American innovation,” said Ruth Porat, the president of Alphabet and Google, in a quote highlighted in both PRs.

Higher electricity and water bills, and noise, but on the other hand, we get access to the exciting era of American innovation.

Fair tradeoff.