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Protesters Haul A Guillotine To City Council Meeting About A Potential AI Data Center
One week after the meeting, Salem announced a data center moratorium that would halt all data center developments in the city for one year as it considers zoning laws to accommodate developments such as this. This adds Salem to the long list of jurisdictions that have passed similar moratoriums, including Seattle, Washington, and the State of New York.
Unfortunately, the Verrus project will likely not be affected by this delay as it filed its application three days before the announcement. Despite this, Governor Tina Kotek (D) announced that Oregon will terminate a deal to sell a 32-acre plot of land that forms part of the three plots of land on which the project will sit. While it still leaves Verrus with approximately 43 acres, it means that it would have to go back to the drawing board to change its plans. This is similar to what Nashville did when it used its eminent domain power to deny the land that another developer wanted to use to build a data center near the historic Nashville Zoo.
But because Verrus submitted its application before the moratorium announcement, the city is still processing its proposed data center project. That does not mean that it will get an immediate green light, though. It still has to go through an extensive permitting process, which includes technical studies, permit conditions, and enforceable agreements, among others.
Oregon is one of the first states to enact a law that ensures large consumers, like data centers, pay for the majority of the grid upgrades needed to serve their needs. This allowed Portland General Electric, the state’s largest power provider, to increase the bills of users who used more than 20 MW by 30%, while also affecting a 1.3% cut in residential electricity costs. But despite this protection that stops ratepayers from price shocks, many people are still against data center projects in their towns and cities.
Kansas Town Silences Public Comment On Gigawatt AI Data Center After Receiving Death Threats
Kansas Town Silences Public Comment On Gigawatt AI Data Center After Receiving Death Threats, Moves To Virtual Meetings — Shift Follows Physics Teacher's Arrest For Clapping
“In the interest of public safety, the Emporia City Commission meetings scheduled for Wednesday, August 5, 2026, and Wednesday, August 19, 2026, will be conducted virtually. No public comment period will be provided during either meeting,” the city said on its Facebook page.
The move to a virtual meeting is an understandable move given the death threats on some of the city leaders. However, it also canceled public comments and instead directed citizens to an email address and phone number where they can air their concerns privately. This led to some citizens airing their complaints in a protest outside the Emporia municipal auditorium.
“While I don't doubt that there are credible threats, my big question is on how many there are and from where they are coming. Mayor Smith did mention in yesterday's meeting that the threats don't seem to really be coming from locals but ‘it only takes one’ to ruin a meeting so they went virtual. I feel like we're being punished for the actions of outsiders,” Lux Claridge, the person arrested in the previous council meeting, told 404 Media.
“I'm not so upset about going virtual, it makes sense, but back it up with examples of these threats. I'm more upset that they opted to close public comment and I don't understand why.”
One of the things that the council considered during the meeting was the petition to put a data center ban on the ballot, with the members voting unanimously to send it for judicial review. The council claimed that doing otherwise could open the city to a lawsuit from either side, although it did not elaborate on the reason why this would happen.
While we haven’t heard of a local jurisdiction getting sued for passing a data center ban, one Texas senator warned a county in the state that it cannot legally impose this. So, the commissioners are likely being careful to avoid legal issues, even if they’re in another state.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday August 12, @07:27PM (2 children)
My impression is that the big corporate legacy media, the business world in general, and politicians are all absolutely terrified about what will happen when the AI bubble pops. Because right now:
- Unemployment is up, a lot.
- Available jobs are down, a lot.
- Wages and salaries are down, a lot.
- Stocks would be down but for the AI bubble.
- GDP would be down but for the AI bubble.
- Personal net worth is averaging at approximately 0.
Blue-collar people are already completely f'd and have been for about 30 years. AI has been the excuse to do the same thing to the remaining white-collar workers since the 2008 crash aftermath didn't completely wipe them out. And when the AI bubble pops, that's going to take out the rich investor class too.
Oh, and if you hadn't noticed the other news, climatologists now pretty much all agree we've blown right past the temperature target which would prevent things from becoming unmanageably bad environmentally speaking.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13, @02:37AM (1 child)
Maybe it's getting bad enough that the algos showing me stuff like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCvf8E7V1g [youtube.com]
The hiring more people is last resort is not that true (esp in the start up phase) but still way more accurate than saying the rich are "job creators".
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday August 14, @03:07PM
Probably accurate for 1% startup nepotism type companies. They're just shuffling around excess printed money from the fed to somewhat reduce inflation and somewhat increate monetary velocity but its not really a "creative" endeavor. At most, shuffling jobs around, like fire 10K people from a legacy industry to hire 5K to 15K in the new industry, probably in another country of course.
This is also fairly accurate. To some extent, it's a fixed pool of productivity, so a dude opening a restaurant is just eating the revenue that used to go to the bar, its not like his customers magically made more money. There can be a minor increase in monetary flow rates, if people spend more money on short term restaurant food that becomes poop in a day, vs spending money on car repair tools as a hobby that last forever and don't really increase economic activity much. There are technological advance job increases but people confuse those with scammers doing "financial innovation".