Source time Edition date
IndustryWired AI
What the US Movement Against Data Centers Can Learn From Abroad
美国数据中心反对运动能从国外学到什么
Paris Marx's Hyperscale perspective suggests US data center opponents should study Ireland and New Zealand, where local resistance forced regulators to weigh power and water costs against hyperscale growth.
Judgment
US local officials weighing a data center permit should follow Ireland's model and let the grid operator, not the developer, set the ceiling — accepting slower buildout in exchange for disclosed power and water costs.
Basis
Paris Marx tells WIRED that Dublin's 2021 moratorium came from the grid operator, not from activists: it said there was not enough grid capacity to connect any more data centers. Industry responded by siting elsewhere in Ireland, tapping the gas network, then building dedicated gas power plants to feed its facilities instead of connecting to the grid, and lobbying for legislation that would let private companies build electricity cables on what is a public grid. Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency granted the emission licenses for that fossil fuel burn while warning climate targets would be harder to achieve. Marx also cites Netherlands and Singapore moratoriums dating to 2019, and Google's year-long fight to keep water figures secret in The Dalles, Oregon, where the numbers finally showed the company using 29 percent of the community's water.
- Grid refuses connectionsshift siting
- Build outside Dublingrid bypass
- Dedicated gas plantsprivate wires
- Lobby for private cablesfuel permits
- EPA emission licenses
Unclear The source never describes what New Zealand's alternative data center vision actually is, nor whether Dublin's grid-connection moratorium is still in force today.
Next Check whether Ireland's EPA or its grid operator issues any new data center emission licenses or connection refusals over the next year.