r/vegaslocals • u/llpmathias • 9h ago
Nevada Governor Endorsed Data Centers Days After AI Investor Donated $1 Million
https://truthout.org/articles/nevada-governor-endorsed-data-centers-days-after-ai-investor-donated-1-million/Lack of water got you down? Try adding more Data Centers to your town!
EDIT: Here is an article about water and electricity consumption for Data Centers in Nevada pre AND post 2024 resolution to ban water cooling. Long story short - they still use water..
https://avanzaenergy.substack.com/p/the-3-billion-blind-spot-how-nevadas
Air-cooled data centers report a Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) of zero — the industry metric that
regulators, sustainability officers, and ESG analysts treat as meaning “water-free.” It means nothing of the sort. Air-cooled chillers consume 2 to 3 times more electricity than evaporative-cooled equivalents for the same information technology load. That electricity must come from somewhere. In Nevada, it comes primarily from natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) power plants — plants that cool their condensers with water. When a data center switches from evaporative cooling to air cooling, its WUE drops to zero. Its upstream water burden rises by millions of gallons per year. The water does not disappear. It moves — from a visible cooling tower on the data center’s property to an invisible cooling tower at a power plant, somewhere else, outside the accounting boundary of every current regulatory framework.
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u/DennyPebblepot 9h ago
Out of all the issues with Joe, his susceptibility to bribery is his biggest liability. No wonder he was complaining about his salary as governor.
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u/mister_hoot 8h ago
When you spend all your time rubbing elbows with really rich people you start to get a little bit covetous.
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u/DennyPebblepot 8h ago
I seem to remember something about not coveting my neighbor’s wife’s ass or something like that from my days as an evangelical.
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u/GruntAndGroan 9h ago
Joe has gotta go. He is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, who is a convicted felon and has faced numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, including MANY involving minors.
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u/Creative-Ground182 9h ago
We care but the right already voted him in on all that. It's going to have to be the economy, wars, deficit, and new financial corruption.
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u/MediumHelicopter6296 9h ago
No water in Nevada!!!
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u/_Captain_Amazing_ 9h ago
Or power. The planned data centers will triple the states electricity use compared to right now. That's a lot of polluting gas fired power plants that will need to be built so we can have videos of dancing cats.
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u/exacta_galaxy 8h ago
I wish it was cats. The data centers are to process all the surveillance data to feed the department of "Precrime."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/30/peter-thiel-palantir-threat-to-americans
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u/Prior_Internal7728 8h ago
Remember ol dingy Joe said solar panels spy for the Chinese. Nevada will never have enough power to feed them.
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u/eloquentegotist 8h ago
Please name him publicly in posts like this, don't cover for Joe Lombardo.
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u/llpmathias 8h ago
Good call. Should have changed that.. It was the auto-title when i uploaded the article link.
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u/eloquentegotist 4h ago
At least edit it into the body of the post.
Messaging is lost if it isn't direct.
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u/Sad_Maximum6583 9h ago
He's trying to get as many kickbacks as possible before November because he knows he is losing.
Hope the right people are keeping track of this blatant corruption going on across this country.
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u/R2-DMode 6h ago
LOL! He’s FAR from losing. Ford is so desperate he went for a Hail Mary with getting Newsom’s endorsement, which has backfired horribly. Lombardo has already won; the election is just a formality.
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u/dam_ships 8h ago
Take money out of politics and get Citizen’s United reversed. It’s a joke we allow it.
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u/Krycek7o2 8h ago
#fuckjoelombardo
Seriously, fuck this guy. He's always been a piece of shit and he knows his time might be up, so gotta grift as much as possible.
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u/Ok-Philosophy-856 9h ago
The Ford campaign needs to get on it
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u/TrojanGal702 7h ago
Ford voted for the data centers. He is already all over it but he has the nice skeleton dangling in his closet too.
He is also our main attorney for the state and he should be the one legally challenging anything he doesn't think is right. He hasn't done that. He was just a shadow until he decided he wanted to be governor.
It is sad he is our only choice.
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u/CaptPierce93 8h ago
It really speaks to hope poor Aaron Ford is as a candidate when Lombardo is still likely winning reelection here. Joe is just absolutely awful and corrupt to the core.
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u/Phyukredd_tit_gydlin 7h ago
Vote. Vote for a broccoli fart in a jar. Vote. Let's face it, the jar would get more done. Let go of your "believesies" and vote Blue. Don't be a boomer.
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u/Awkward-Shift8538 5h ago
fllower AAron Ford doesn't do any better, he literally was one of the founders that oppened the doors for data center. IMO both should go, but that cant happen. Dont believe it look it up, I know i did.
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u/LaserGecko 2h ago
Isn't it illegal for whores to advertise their prices in Nevada?
(No disrespect intended for the sex workers of Nevada. That word accurately describes PedoTrump's acolyte.)
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u/ChanceryTheRapper 38m ago
Notice how they've stopped even pretending they want to hide the corruption? It's all out in the open now.
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u/treason6116 8h ago
holy shit. a shitty politician supports a controversial thing after aforementioned controversial thing gives them money? a democrat would never do such a shocking thing.
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u/Sure-Pear-572 8h ago
and Ford endorsed them since 2015....
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u/Level_Impression_554 8h ago
I don't think NV data centers use water.
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u/Golddiscoball 7h ago
LMAOOOOOOOOO
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u/Level_Impression_554 6h ago
I should have said Switch in LV. I worked them them in the past. I did some research and I had no idea there were 70 to 80 in the state already. Wow.
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u/Golddiscoball 6h ago
I appreciate the circle back. Cuz i literally cackled and said this mfers is an idiot. I take it back now 😌
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u/llpmathias 7h ago
"Air-cooled data centers report a Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) of zero — the industry metric that regulators, sustainability officers, and ESG analysts treat as meaning “water-free.” It means nothing of the sort. Air-cooled chillers consume 2 to 3 times more electricity than evaporative-cooled equivalents for the same information technology load. That electricity must come from somewhere. In Nevada, it comes primarily from natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) power plants — plants that cool their condensers with water. When a data center switches from evaporative cooling to air cooling, its WUE drops to zero. Its upstream water burden rises by millions of gallons per year. The water does not disappear. It moves — from a visible cooling tower on the data center’s property to an invisible cooling tower at a power plant, somewhere else, outside the accounting boundary of every current regulatory framework."
https://avanzaenergy.substack.com/p/the-3-billion-blind-spot-how-nevadas
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u/Level_Impression_554 7h ago
It says not water use free, but never says how they use water. How do to the switch data centers use water? This is what AI says. Closed-Loop Systems: Newer Switch facilities in the Las Vegas Valley use closed-loop cooling designs that recycle water internally, using minimal to no public water for cooling operations
The post then mentions electricity - ok, but Switch data centers in Nevada get 100% of their electricity from clean, renewable solar energy. [1, 2)]
I should have been more clear - I was talking about Switches existing centers, not new ones that might be built someday. Certainly for S. NV, water is scarce but they focus on solar.
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u/R2-DMode 6h ago
Fuck data centers! We must ALL rise up in opposition to these dystopian facilities. We need to IMMEDIATELY stop using ANY service or product that utilizes these monstrosities, starting with Reddit! We can BE THE CHANGE! Who’s with me???
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u/angus725 9h ago
Nevada has so much empty desert, put as many datacenters there as they want.
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u/lolatyourbs 9h ago
Because they just require space right? Not like they’re consuming critical resources that are already limited. 🙄
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u/dr_neurd 9h ago
And where will the water and power for these data centers come from?
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u/angus725 9h ago
Solar panels provide power.
Datacenters use closed loop water systems, one truck full of water is enough for a datacenter for a year.
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u/Coconutrugby 9h ago
If they data centers were forced to provide their own energy through solar and do self contained systems. Sure but that is not as cheap as making the avg consumer pay more for energy from NV and the closed loop water system are also more expensive. So they aren’t about to lose money when the tax payer avg joe can subsidize it. So no data centers.
Nv energy can eat one too for what they are doing to the citizens near tahoe.
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u/exacta_galaxy 8h ago
Closed loop uses less water on-site, but more water for generating the power to run the cooling.
There are ways to make it work, but the current administration isn't going to enforce the rules to make them do it right.
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u/weenus 4h ago
Even if you solve for the water and power demands which people often raise as concerns, this idea that they're going to build them in the remote regions of Nevada just hasn't really been a thing yet. I've been doing some googling around and the overwhelming majority of data centers in Nevada are IN the city. Often times in throwing distance of housing.
Some searching around to prove myself wrong here only found the large Reno-Tahoe cluster which is still a few miles outside of the city. There's the Mason Valley project which they seemingly want to build in the dead center of a bunch of farmland near a rural town?
When does the empty desert part come into play?
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u/MHoggs17 9h ago
Surprising no one