Artificial Intelligence

Newsom Signs 7 Bills Reining In Data Centers

Will this make the industry pay its fair share or hand the giants an even bigger advantage?

Published 18 hours ago

Newsom Signs 7 Bills Reining In Data Centers

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Above: A protest against AI data center expansion in Berkeley, California, on July 18. Image credit: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

The Spin

Democratic narrative

Data centers guzzle water and electricity, and no local citizens should be forced to eat those costs through higher utility bills. These new laws make the industry pay its fair share for grid and water upgrades instead of dumping the tab on low-income ratepayers. Communities will finally get the information and the power to decide whether a data center belongs in the neighborhood.

Gavin Newsom on X Governor of California

Republican narrative

Piling costs and red tape onto data centers chases away the exact investment California needs, when abandoned industrial land is sitting there begging for redevelopment. Big labs can absorb these utility bills without blinking, but smaller developers just lost any edge they had. Regulation like this always ends up protecting the giants who can afford to pay.

Celestius on X

Raiderfanatic on X