Smalltimore

County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to ‘Conserve Electricity’

The absolute balls of the County Manager, John Vithoulkas, to say this with a straight face:

“To mitigate the impact of higher electric costs, I am asking that we, collectively, make slight adjustments to conserve electricity across our individual workspaces,”

It’s usually been common for business to build out infrastructure to support expansion prior to moving forward with said expansion. It just makes sense–you need to know that what you are building will be able to operate. This crazy AI data center explosion has turned all common sense norms upside down in the chase for market share, government contracts, and profits. Allowing billion ¹ dollar companies to essentially steal or steeply subsidize their energy needs and costs on the communities.

Vithoulkas’s email said these small changes may seem insignificant but that they add up. “Each dollar we can save by conserving electricity is another dollar the county can reinvest into staff and the services we provide our residents,” it said.

I’m sure the companies building and operating the data centers are sharing the same mindset…