DCOct 24, 2025
Gerry McGovern
"It’s no wonder that companies are silent about exactly how much water their facilities use. The Data Center Coalition, an industry lobbying group, opposed the California disclosure bill—the one that Newsom then vetoed. In 2021, a city in Oregon sued a local newspaper to prevent it from reporting on Google’s water use. After the case was finally settled, news reports revealed that Google’s data centers accounted for more than a quarter of local water consumption."
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/ai-zuckerberg-tech-regulation-data-security/#
Will the AI Boom Lead to Water and Electricity Shortages?

It’s a steep price to pay so that Mark Zuckerberg can sell AI-enabled spy glasses.

The Nation
Oct 24, 2025 at 12:00pmWeb
Show threadPollinatorsOct 24, 2025
@gerrymcgovern Yes. AI data center construction leads to water and electricity shortages. #aibubble
Show threadFediThing Oct 24, 2025

@gerrymcgovern

The energy and water needs to be limited, and the companies forced to work within those limits. It's just common sense, there isn't enough of it to go around and a plagiarism bullshit machine is just not that necessary.

Show threadts 🚇Oct 24, 2025
@gerrymcgovern wait the CITY sued to prevent people from hearing these facts?
Show threadJustin DerrickOct 24, 2025

@gerrymcgovern If they’re using 25% of the water, charge them 4x the standard price, then they finance the whole operation — any local subsidies that were paying for water infrastructure can build new infrastructure, or improve existing facilities.

When did we forget that governments exist to make everyone’s lives better?

Show threadGerry McGovernOct 24, 2025
@JustinDerrick the reality usually is they get the water at half the price the public pays--all sweetheart deals and corporate welfare
Show threadJustin DerrickOct 24, 2025
@gerrymcgovern Yeah, for the same reason I can’t have a water wheel in my basement generating electricity for my house, AI datacentres shouldn’t be getting that water to power their LLM nonsense — especially at a discount!
Show threadCyOct 24, 2025
Around here I think it's 8 cents vs 21 cents, almost a third.

CC: @[email protected]
Show threadgrmonOct 24, 2025
@gerrymcgovern absolutely not. Pinky promise!!!111