Data Center Stuff from Claude

Why Are So Many Communities Fighting Data Centers?

My father and I talk once a week over Google Meet. Recently he asked why Democrats are against data centers, and I realized I didn’t have a good answer. So I asked Claude:

“Why are so many communities against data centers, and is there validity to it?”

The response surprised me. I’d assumed most of the fear was overblown. Here’s what came back, lightly edited for length.

The short version

There’s real validity, but it’s uneven. The electricity-cost and noise complaints hold up best. The water and jobs arguments are more contested, and the loudest numbers in this debate come from people with a stake in the outcome.

Why opposition has exploded

One tracker counted 45 projects worth $68 billion blocked or delayed in Q2 2026, with 843 opposition groups across 49 states. Secondary sources report opposition rising from 47% in late 2025 to 71% by March 2026, though Claude couldn’t verify that against Gallup directly.

Opposition also crosses party lines. Water depletion alarms rural conservatives, noise bothers suburban homeowners, and ratepayer cost-shifting has triggered legislation from both parties.

Where the complaints are strong

Electricity bills, in at least one region. In the PJM grid (13 states plus DC), capacity auction prices jumped from $28.92 to $329.17 per MW-day between 2024/25 and 2026/27. Even an industry-commissioned report concedes that data center growth accounted for about half of that increase. Estimated household hits include roughly $18/month in western Maryland and $16/month in Ohio. Outside PJM, the evidence is weak. That same industry report found no consistent link between load growth and rising rates at the state level, though the Data Center Coalition paid for it, so take it with salt. In short, “data centers raise your bill” is true in some markets and unproven in others. Where it’s true, everyone pays into the same capacity pool regardless of who drove the demand.

Noise. It’s the least glamorous complaint and the most defensible. Cooling equipment runs around the clock, and there are no federal noise standards, since the EPA defunded its noise office in 1981. Developers can mitigate it if they’re required to.

Jobs are oversold. One Illinois proposal promised about 1,500 temporary construction jobs against roughly 200 permanent ones. Residents notice the gap.

Tax breaks. Property tax revenue can be substantial. A Meta site in DeKalb, Illinois, helped fund a new elementary school. But even a taxpayer-group study that generally favors data centers warns against giveaways like an 86% property tax break in Abilene and a 100% break for 15 years in Maysville, Ohio. Whether a town comes out ahead depends on the deal it negotiates.

Where it’s weaker or overstated

Water. It’s the most frequently cited concern in some trackers, but it depends heavily on location. One industry-friendly study says a single data center uses about as much water per year as most other industries, though it flags real concern in arid states. A closed-loop design versus a drought-stressed aquifer makes a huge difference.

The statistics. The blocked-project figures ($64B, $68B, $130B) come from trackers and consultancies with their own angles, and they don’t agree with each other. Treat them as directional.

Future demand. Much of the grid panic rests on load forecasts. If the forecast demand doesn’t materialize, ratepayers will have paid for a bet that didn’t pan out.

Claude’s read

The backlash isn’t irrational NIMBYism. Residents are reacting to a lopsided deal. The benefits (AI capacity, corporate profit, some tax revenue) are national or corporate, while the costs (noise, land, grid strain, possible rate hikes) are local. The opposition is also sometimes sloppy, treating every data center as a water-guzzling bill-raiser regardless of design or utility market.

What separates a good project from a bad one is whether the developer pays its own way: covering the grid upgrades it triggers, committing to water and noise limits, and not extracting abatements that wipe out the local upside. Some states are moving that way, with proposals requiring data centers to pay 60-80% of contracted demand even if the facility is never built. Where those protections exist, opposition tends to be weaker.

So what do I think?

I told my dad something similar. I’d assumed the fear was mostly hype, and I came away thinking a good chunk of it is warranted. What I took from it is that this isn’t really a Democrat-versus-Republican issue. It’s a “who pays?” issue.

What do you think? Are data centers coming to your area? Leave a comment.

Stay Old, Bold, and Bald, and a little Grumpy too.

Sources: CDA Press, Gadget Review, SoftwareSeni, IEEFA, Data Center Coalition/E3, Columbus Free Press, Capitol News Illinois, Shaw Local, Herald & Review, Center Square/NTU

What a Crisis Shows You

Respect is earned, and it’s slow to build and quick to lose. I’ve believed that for a long time, but I watched it play out this past week.

A family crisis doesn’t change people. It removes the cushion. Everyday life lets almost anyone look reliable, because the stakes are low and nobody is keeping score. Then something real happens, and the schedule clears, and you find out who already knew what to do.

Some people just start. They don’t wait to be asked or ask for credit. They skip meals, cancel their own plans, and keep going. Others have good intentions and a reason why the timing is hard, and then they wait to be told what’s needed.

Here is what I took from it: if you have to be asked, you’re already late. The people worth respecting ask “what do you need?” and don’t wait for the answer to arrive on its own.

I watched someone I love carry far more than her share, quietly, without keeping a tally. It reminded me that respect isn’t a title or a relationship. It’s a record, built one showing-up at a time.

So I’m asking myself the question I’d ask anyone: when it’s my turn, which kind of person will I be?

Until next time,
Stay Old, Bold, and Bold and a little Grumpy too!

Where Was My $2,000? Now He's Talking $5,000

I wasn't planning on writing about politics today, but here we are. I guess I'll just start.

I haven't watched the news myself, but from what I'm hearing, the President has floated a new promise: if Republicans hold Congress in the midterms, everyone gets a $5,000 check. Turns out that's roughly right — Trump announced a $5,000 "dividend" tied to tariff revenue, contingent on a GOP win in November. It's already drawing bipartisan pushback and could face legal challenges, for what it's worth.

Funny thing is, I'm still waiting on the $2,000 tariff dividend he promised almost a year ago. According to ABC News, that one still hasn't shown up either. So forgive me if I'm not holding my breath on this new number.

Anyway, here's how I ended up down this road: I was on the phone with my father — we don't talk much these days, and he's been trying to "rekindle things" lately — and he brought it up.

Whenever he gets going on politics, I ask him a few questions he usually can't answer. It's become our routine at this point. He was a DFLer back when we lived in Minnesota. Once we moved to Kansas, he became a Republican. Now? I think he's drifting left again. That's fine by me — everyone's entitled to change their mind.

The conversation always starts the same way: "I wonder what that idiot in Washington has done today." When I push him to explain why he calls the man an idiot, it usually comes down to wondering what he's shot his mouth off about now.

I remind him the guy isn't a career politician — he's a billionaire businessman who says what's on a lot of people's minds already. He just doesn't have a filter.

Do I agree with everything Trump says? No. But I respect that he says what's on his mine, out loud, with his name attached — unlike some people these days, who'll say anything from behind a keyboard or a camera and never own it. Looking at you, social media influencers.

The alternative, I guess, is someone polished and politically correct who has no idea what they're doing. And honestly — whatever happened to common sense anyway?

Anyway, that's my rant for the moment.

Until next time,
Stay Old, Bold, and Bald and may be a bit Grumpy too!

Movie Review

 I'll just say it right now, I don't usually suggest movies to others. Why? Because everyone has different tastes. I like Action and Horror movies; my wife likes rom-coms and "chick flick" stuff; my daughter enjoys Anime and the like; and I have no idea what my son likes.

I'm not sure how to classify this one other than maybe a "feel-good" movie? I think that I have seen it about 6 times already. Heck, I had to look for it one day because it wasn't in the top 10 for the day.

Ok, I've seen this movie in just a couple of places: YouTube and Amazon Prime. Since I don't watch much traditional TV, I don't know if it was in theatres or not.

Now, enough of the background and to the reveal.

The movie: Project Hail Mary.

I don't know what it is about that movie, but I seem to go from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other. One moment, I'm laughing. Not a belly laugh, but enough of one to put a smile on my face. Then, I'm bawling like a baby, followed by another chuckle.

With about 1 hour left, it is over 2.5 hours so it's kinda long, my favorite scene pops up. Something about that little alien is magical. Somehow, through it all, they manage to save each other.

I may be a bit "friend" challenged but these guys seemed to get it right.

Anyway, that's enough of my blabbering.

Until next time,
Stay Old, Bold, and Bald and maybe a little Grumpy too!

Judging from the Bench

What has happened to our country?

I grew up in Minnesota until the mid-1980s, and I posted on another Social Media platform that I was embarrassed by how Minnesota went from Minnesota Nice to Minnesota Ain't So Nice. There was no civility; they were blowing whistles at people just to warn someone they'd never met that the authorities were in the area and to get out. And I was getting kinda tired of hearing that I was a Fascist Nazi because I didn't share their beliefs. The very people that I used to call "friends" became someone that I didn't want to associate with. I unfriended some and then just completely deactivated my account. I was done!

Now, I read in the news that another judge is governing from the bench. This is ridiculous. It is not the job of a trial court to dictate any policy, left or right, from the bench. For some reason, this judge decided to throw out all confessions for a captured 9/11 plotter because the confession, obtained in 2007, wasn't valid and was coerced. Huh?

I'm not sure what evidence he pulled this from, and it is not for me to "judge", but what?

Now, I'm reading about a person that holds a public office told a group of people to put Humanity above this group's Safety? What is with people? What ever happened to common sense?

I know there was a time where our politicians would argue during the day and go out for drinks after. Not any more. The deviciveness that is out there won't even allow for family members to talk because people on one side think that their "kind" should be steadfast. I don't get it.

When did breaking the law become okay? Look at SF where anyone can basically shoplift whatever they want? Immigration being such a hot topic? If they broke the US law to get in, why should they be allowed to stay? I don't get santuary cities at all. 

I guess that Rodney King has it right when he said, ",,,can we all get along? Can we get along?"

And, for goodness sake, stop with the idological BS and just do your job! 

Hide Behind a Keyboard

Hide Behind a Keyboard

I've been called a lot of things. Idiot, A # # hole, Jerk. Old man who should sit down.

I made a mistake by saying, on a social media platform, that I was embarrassed to be a native Minnesotan because of what people were doing up there. I got roasted. Comments like "you should know better" were met with "I quit drinking the Kool-Aid."

Most recently, the guy next door sent a scathing, certified letter, letting me know that I was overwatering and killing his trees. One line really bugged me because we haven't spoken about this, AT ALL. The line, "I would rather have communicated like normal neighbors, but it appears as though you're not interested in that." Funny, as a text message, that has been blocked, just doesn't seem like "communicating" like normal neighbors. Also, who told this "guy" to plant trees that are susceptible to disease, right on my property line? Not me.

I blocked him as I was advised to because he sent a "text message" saying that I had mowed into this yard and that this was not acceptable. Dude. I just got home from the hospital! To this day, thanks to Wallenberg Syndrome, I still have balance issues and a bad limp.

The letter itself was a rant, like he spoke. One long paragraph with ZERO suggestions as to how to correct it. So, I took the exact opposite approach. I completely turned it off and wrote "It's off!" on the signature receipt that the tool suggested.

The Guy Who'd Never Say It to Your Face

Take that same guy and put him across a table from me. Coffee shop, doesn't matter. Now watch what happens to his courage.

It evaporates. Every time.

Because it was never courage. It was distance. The internet gives cowards an invisible wall, and the wall is a keyboard. Behind it, everybody's a tough guy. Everybody's got the hot take, the gut punch, the thing they'd "never let slide." Strip away the screen name and the avatar and put a real face on the other side of the table, and that same guy will suddenly find a reason to check his phone.

I spent 30-plus years in enterprise IT and telecom, sitting in rooms with executives who'd cut you down over a missed SLA without blinking; to your face, in real time, no hiding. I've had a stroke that took the strength out of my left foot and made we relearn how to walk like a man twice my age. I've sat at a trading desk and watched a position go against me in real time, no delay, no do-over button. None of that prepared me for the particular flavor of gutlessness I get from friends, neighbors, and strangers online. Because at least the guy in the boardroom had to look at me while he said it.

Why I Stopped Hiding, Even When It Would've Been Easier

Here's the part I'll own: I get it. Hiding is easier. I could post my trades without my face attached, keep my mouth shut about the stroke, the drop foot, the fact that I'm bald and 60 and not particularly interested in pretending otherwise. Nobody would know it was me if a trade blew up or a post didn't land. Anonymous failure doesn't sting the same way.

But anonymous anything doesn't mean much either.

I named this blog Old, Bold, and Bald because I got tired of watching people, myself included, plenty of times, trade their spine for a login. You want to say something, say it. Own it. You want to disagree with me, disagree with me where I can see you do it. Let's talk about it. Face to face. I'll take a real argument from a real person over a drive-by insult from a cartoon avatar every single time, because one of those exchanges might actually teach me something.

The Keyboard Isn't the Problem. You Are.

I'm not making some tired "the internet ruined civility" argument. The internet's a tool. A hammer doesn't make you swing it at somebody's head. The keyboard doesn't make you cruel, it just makes cruelty free. No eye contact tax. No tone-of-voice tax. No standing there watching your words land on an actual human being who now has to carry them around for the rest of the day.

Take that tax away and you find out fast who somebody really is underneath the manners.

So here's my ask, and it's not complicated. Before you type something, you wouldn't say standing in front of the person, sitting across the table, in the room, close enough that your voice would shake a little saying it, don't. Not because the internet police are coming for you. Because if it only exists behind a keyboard, it was never real in the first place. It was just noise from someone who may be too afraid to actually talk with you.

I'm old. I'm bald. I've got a foot that doesn't always do what I tell it to and a trading account that occasionally reminds me I'm not as smart as I think I am. I've got nothing left to protect by pretending to be someone else online, and honestly, neither do you. Say it with your name on it, or don't say it at all.

That's the whole post. Come find me and tell me I'm wrong, but be open-minded enough to "Be curious, not judgmental." I'll be here.

Until next time,

Stay Old, Bold, and Bald, and maybe a bit Grumpy too

A Modern Day Scrooge

I got a rather nasty, venting, certified letter from my neighbor complaining that I was killing his spruce trees because I “overwater.” So, I turned the system completely off. I’m not sure who told him to plant those things right on the property line anyway.

Years ago, he sent a text complaining that I, who has balance issues, mowed into his yard. He was blocked and I was advised to stay away from him. Now, I have hired a landscaping company so that I don’t have to deal with this level of selfishness. FYI, it ain't cheap.

He couldn’t just walk over and talk like “normal neighbors.” No suggestions or recommendations provided. Just a rant from a guy who wrote this letter like a 5th grader who writes like he speaks.

Not sure if he knows this, but there is a disease that is eating at Junipers in the KC area called Cercospora needle blight.

Moral of the story: don’t act like Scrooge and point your finger with no suggestions on how to fix the problem until it’s too late. Oh yeah, you’ve been blocked in pretty much every possible way, so you will need to come over and speak with us to resolve whatever issues you may have.

Until next time,
Stay Old, Bold, and Bald