About this episode

David Roberts discusses the organized backlash against data centers and the underlying issues of social trust with Energy Empire hosts and a guest.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Data center opposition has gone from nonexistent to organized in about two years, roughly 120 moratoriums across 38 states, and it does not track proximity: Gallup finds 70% of Americans oppose a data center near them, while only 8% of opponents live near one. On this episode of Volts, David Roberts joins Energy Empire hosts Jigar Shah and Jamie Nolan, along with Arnab Pal of Deploy Action, for a crossover conversation, and his argument is that everyone is solving the wrong problem. The hyperscalers could buy their way to consent for a rounding error, batteries in basements, solar on roofs, funded schools, lower bills, and they refuse, which David reads as a symptom of low social trust that no amount of better modeling touches. “This is not a technocratic problem that you can just solve with a few switches,” he says. Thirty-six governors go to the ballot this fall having to answer for it. Chapters: 00:00 Intro: a Volts and Energy Empire crossover 01:25 Has the AI case been made? Energy vs. AI as the real revolution 04:23 The backlash by the…

People in this episode

Host: David Roberts

Guests: Jigar Shah, Jamie Nolan, Arnab Pal

Topics covered

• data centers
• public opposition
• social trust
• energy policy
• hyperscalers
• local solutions

Keywords

• data center backlash
• social trust
• hyperscalers
• energy policy
• public opinion
• local solutions

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Gallup, Deploy Action, Energy Empire

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