Federal laws to support crypto currency and efforts to drum up demand for AI are transforming power grids and water supplies across the nation.
A few weeks ago, we released Four Recommendations for communities to address the arrival of data centers and crypto mines. Now we want to share some draft language that other communities are considering. Then we want you to share it with your friends, neighbors, and elected officials.
Whether we like it or not, companies and entities are coming to do business in our towns. This summer saw the passage of key regulatory crypto-currency frameworks in Congress and more proposals are in the works. That is in conjunction with intense lobbying efforts from tech companies to build AI infrastructure that is both thirsty and power hungry. We have not yet begun to understand the impacts of high-powered computing factories on our utility bills, power grid, and water supplies (all of which have a symbiosis with one another).
Our outreach and partnerships with communities across the nation — in places like New York, Texas, and Georgia — showcase the inevitability of impacts and the need to regulate with our neighborhoods and pocketbooks in mind.
Our national partners with the National Coalition Against Cryptomining put together a zoning framework that emphasizes the louder, dirtier, and even more useless crypto sector. But, with some tweaks, it could apply to other projects. Nevertheless, this is a boilerplate mechanism that you can use as a starting point with officials in your hometown. See the draft language and links to other examples from around the country.
This also serves as a warning of sorts: Members of congress are poised to pass even more efforts this year to advance crypto interests. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and major hedge funds are all on board. These currencies don’t appear out of thin air. They come from our water supplies and power grid.
In states like Nevada, state statute doesn’t differentiate between, say, a crypto operation and a data center for Google. It’s all eligible for tax breaks and other financial incentives. Think about that. We need to protect our pocketbooks, communities and natural resources before we invite new industries looking for low-cost places of doing business.
We will continue to work on concepts and ideas that meet the needs of communities. Share this document with elected officials far and wide.
