Comedian takes on ai data centers

[cbabe]

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221244555

'Nobody's negotiating for the people here': comedian Charlie Berens takes on AI datacenters

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/may/17/comedian-charlie-berens-ai-datacenters

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‘Nobody’s negotiating for the people here’: comedian Charlie Berens takes on AI datacenters

Last summer, journalist turned comedian Charlie Berens started getting social media messages from concerned Wisconsin residents about plans for a massive datacenter campus in their state.

The developer, Vantage Data Centers, claimed the $8 bn project would largely run on zero-emission energy resources like solar, wind and battery storage. The company said the campus would bring thousands of temporary construction jobs and potentially more than 1,000 permanent jobs to Port Washington, a city of 13,000 people about a half-hour north of Milwaukee. Residents opposed the project for what they said was lack of transparency and criticized the lucrative tax incentives offered to Vantage. They worried about the strain on local water and energy sources from an enormous 1.3-gigawatt project that could ultimately span 1,900 acres.

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When he Googled, he found that lawmakers in his state had paved the way to make the Port Washington project a reality. The deal between Port Washington and Vantage gave an estimated $458m in tax breaks to the developer over 20 years to fund infrastructure for the project, with the city not seeing any of that tax revenue during that period.

“It was shocking,” Berens said.

… more …. We don’t want WALL·E, we want walleye…