Meta's Massive AI Data Center Is Stressing Out a Louisiana Community 48
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: A massive data center for Meta's AI will likely lead to rate hikes for Louisiana customers, but Meta wants to keep the details under wraps. Holly Ridge is a rural community bisected by US Highway 80, gridded with farmland, with a big creek -- it is literally named Big Creek -- running through it. It is home to rice and grain mills and an elementary school and a few houses. Soon, it will also be home to Meta's massive, 4 million square foot AI data center hosting thousands of perpetually humming servers that require billions of watts of energy to power. And that energy-guzzling infrastructure will be partially paid for by Louisiana residents.
The plan is part of what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said would be "a defining year for AI." On Threads, Zuckerberg boasted that his company was "building a 2GW+ datacenter that is so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan," posting a map of Manhattan along with the data center overlaid. Zuckerberg went on to say that over the coming years, AI "will drive our core products and business, unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership. Let's go build! " What Zuckerberg did not mention is that "Let's go build" refers not only to the massive data center but also three new Meta-subsidized, gas power plants and a transmission line to fuel it serviced by Entergy Louisiana, the region's energy monopoly.
Key details about Meta's investments with the data center remain vague, and Meta's contracts with Entergy are largely cloaked from public scrutiny. But what is known is the $10 billion data center has been positioned as an enormous economic boon for the area -- one that politicians bent over backward to facilitate -- and Meta said it will invest $200 million into "local roads and water infrastructure." A January report from NOLA.com said that the the state had rewritten zoning laws, promised to change a law so that it no longer had to put state property up for public bidding, and rewrote what was supposed to be a tax incentive for broadband internet meant to bridge the digital divide so that it was only an incentive for data centers, all with the goal of luring in Meta. But Entergy Louisiana's residential customers, who live in one of the poorest regions of the state, will see their utility bills increase to pay for Meta's energy infrastructure, according to Entergy's application. Entergy estimates that amount will be small and will only cover a transmission line, but advocates for energy affordability say the costs could balloon depending on whether Meta agrees to finish paying for its three gas plants 15 years from now. The short-term rate increases will be debated in a public hearing before state regulators that has not yet been scheduled. The Alliance for Affordable Energy called it a "black hole of energy use," and said "to give perspective on how much electricity the Meta project will use: Meta's energy needs are roughly 2.3x the power needs of Orleans Parish ... it's like building the power impact of a large city overnight in the middle of nowhere."
The plan is part of what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said would be "a defining year for AI." On Threads, Zuckerberg boasted that his company was "building a 2GW+ datacenter that is so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan," posting a map of Manhattan along with the data center overlaid. Zuckerberg went on to say that over the coming years, AI "will drive our core products and business, unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership. Let's go build! " What Zuckerberg did not mention is that "Let's go build" refers not only to the massive data center but also three new Meta-subsidized, gas power plants and a transmission line to fuel it serviced by Entergy Louisiana, the region's energy monopoly.
Key details about Meta's investments with the data center remain vague, and Meta's contracts with Entergy are largely cloaked from public scrutiny. But what is known is the $10 billion data center has been positioned as an enormous economic boon for the area -- one that politicians bent over backward to facilitate -- and Meta said it will invest $200 million into "local roads and water infrastructure." A January report from NOLA.com said that the the state had rewritten zoning laws, promised to change a law so that it no longer had to put state property up for public bidding, and rewrote what was supposed to be a tax incentive for broadband internet meant to bridge the digital divide so that it was only an incentive for data centers, all with the goal of luring in Meta. But Entergy Louisiana's residential customers, who live in one of the poorest regions of the state, will see their utility bills increase to pay for Meta's energy infrastructure, according to Entergy's application. Entergy estimates that amount will be small and will only cover a transmission line, but advocates for energy affordability say the costs could balloon depending on whether Meta agrees to finish paying for its three gas plants 15 years from now. The short-term rate increases will be debated in a public hearing before state regulators that has not yet been scheduled. The Alliance for Affordable Energy called it a "black hole of energy use," and said "to give perspective on how much electricity the Meta project will use: Meta's energy needs are roughly 2.3x the power needs of Orleans Parish ... it's like building the power impact of a large city overnight in the middle of nowhere."
found the welfare queen (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: found the welfare queen (Score:3, Interesting)
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Re: That's how republicans (Score:2)
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You're talking to a bot trained on rsilvergun posts. It seems to be a permanent feature of slashdot now...
Re: That's how republicans (Score:4, Funny)
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I have ascended to the same level of godhood as Natalie Portman's Hot grits, naked and petrified. I Am legend.
Your trolls have certainly made you the most important poster on Slashdot.
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I have ascended to the same level of godhood as Natalie Portman's Hot grits, naked and petrified. I Am legend.
Netcraft hasn't confirmed yet.
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A good 25% of the country is absolutely convinced that their primary concerns are woke and trans. Eventually trans will burn itself out but woke will be transformed into something else like it was when it was sjw and PC before even that. And before that you had dungeons and dragons and heavy metal music and before that you had good old-fashioned racism. We still have a healthy undercurrent of that too. Although you're not supposed to speak about it because people get upset... Wonder why. Basically propaganda can push moral panics onto the public and get 47% of the country ready to vote however the propagandists want. From there you just need a little bit of voter suppression and you can win every election. So nobody has to give a shit what the voters think because no matter how bad it gets propaganda + voter suppression = victory. If you were following the trans panic initially it pissed the voters off that their politicians were wasting time on it. It took several weeks and a good 10 years but it eventually stuck. And now we have solid pulling that indicates that trans Rights was a major issue in the last election and that the Republicans wouldn't have won everything without it. I don't want to get too hung up on trans though or woke or PC or sjw or whatever. It doesn't matter what the moral panic is. It's the same trick with different flavors. And we never learn. Never.. So Facebook can have all your money because you're going to fall for moral panics. And let's say you don't doesn't matter because your neighbors will.
This shit has been used by the political class to distract us from the oligarchy raping society for a lot longer than any of us have been alive. Our government was established as a representation of the owner class, meant to keep the rest of us in line, and they've gotten very good at doing just that over the centuries since. Propaganda is a tool they utilize so well that I'm not even sure the entirety of the people running for office are aware it's propaganda. And it stays that way because the oligarchs pa
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So, tell us: does someone log on for you, and push keys for you? I mean, you're so fucking stoooopid that you shouldn't own a computer.
Moron, it's LOUISIANA. Filled with rednecks and MAGA hats. What they're scared of is THEIR ELECTRIC BILL going through the roof, because Zuck (who, btw, is busy deleting anti-47 groups on faceplant) will use so much.
And all the anti-trasn? What, you can't find anyone to date? You can't get laid? Not willing to pay?
Cheap shit. The prostitutes probably draw straws for who gets
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He can afford to buy politicians.
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Meta's contracts with Entergy are largely cloaked from public scrutiny
Govt should report to the taxpayers, not operate independently without oversight. Energy is a finite resource, and every watt bought by Meta is a watt unavailable to Joe taxpayer. Building power plants at taxpayer expense to make up for it, isn't going to help the average person. This looks like more reverse Robinhood, steal from the poor to further enrich the rich
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Why is public money going towards zuck the suck's AI madness?
Because that's how capitalism works Timmy.
You wouldn't want public money going to public services like healthcare, education, municipal transport and utilities or even *gasp* helping people who could use assistance. That would be columnunism or some such. We can't have anything like that so public money must flow towards private companies so they can pay fewer costs whilst avoiding more tax.
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Re: found the welfare queen (Score:2)
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Because tax increment financing is still legal just about everywhere in America.
Data centers create almost no long-term jobs. (Score:4, Insightful)
A data center is built by itinerant mechanical and electrical workers from out of the area. Once built, data centers create almost no local jobs.
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A data center is built by itinerant mechanical and electrical workers from out of the area. Once built, data centers create almost no local jobs.
Data Centers are no different than any other complex facility: once built, they have to be physically managed and maintained. There has to be some people there.
Re:Data centers create almost no long-term jobs. (Score:4, Insightful)
almost no local jobs
some people
Aren't you saying the same thing? And further when the scale of investment is in the tens of billions, but the local jobs are only janitors and couple maintenance folk. And rather than raking in money on taxes, the locals are subsidizing the cost, that's not problematic?
15 years? (Score:4, Interesting)
Has Meta has a gurantueed consumption contract for 15 years?
I don't see how the costs could balloon in 15 years, those plants will have been paid off by then. The community is getting 3 free power plants for free.
Re:15 years? (Score:4, Interesting)
Power costs were already projected to balloon as a result of storm damage. That, which they misrepresent, combined with "what if Meta doesn't hold up their end of the deal", seem to be the basis of their argument. That Meta funding new power plants is a solution to this is something they don't want you thinking about.
Re: 15 years? (Score:2)
Prices (Score:1)
Goddamn (Score:2)
It's a worn-out joke, but it really is Metastasizing.
No, it isn't "stressing out the local community" (Score:4, Interesting)
More propaganda masquerading as news.
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It's stressing out the "Alliance for Affordable Energy" and a couple other activist groups, for whom 404 appears to be shilling instead of reporting.
More propaganda masquerading as news.
404 was created by a bunch of ex-Vice guys after Motherboard went Tits Up. It's a political advocacy group fronted by a blog. That doesn't necessarily mean that they can't write things that turn out to be valuable or insightful, but know up front that their agenda comes first, the same way agendas come first in any politically-centered enterprise (Jacobin Mag, National Review, the New Republic, etc etc). They are, without fail, always going to play their particular angle first and foremost.
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404 is a garbage company and slashdot should block all submissions from them
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Mind-bending craziness (Score:3)
Soon, it will also be home to Meta's massive, 4 million square foot AI data center hosting thousands of perpetually humming servers that require billions of watts of energy to power.
All this waste and pollution and energy usage for.....Facebook? A craptastic social media site?
We have truly lost sight of what's important in the world, wasting such a huge level of resources on this toxic mental-masturbation machine.
Utter insanity, writ large.
billions of watts? (Score:2)
Facebook's windy claims (Score:1)
By The People, For The People (Score:2)
...has left the room
In one of the most impoverished states, of course (Score:2)