Item — HN Reader

This is not an excuse for residents to have lower quality of life for capital speculators "because it was industrial zoning". Try to make your case in a public hearing with a room full of residents, see how it goes. Long time politicians are getting fired over it, so natural consequences will help with this.

Data Center Disputes Fuel 33 Recall Efforts, Ballotpedia Finds - https://ballotpedia.org/Press_release_Data_Center_Disputes_F... - July 7th, 2026

Utah Senate President Loses Primary After Data Center Backlash - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/24/us/j-stuart-adams-utah-se... | https://archive.today/MMot6 - June 24th, 2026

1 comments

I live in Utah and we have refineries a few blocks away from residential neighborhoods and a literal strip mine visible from half of the Salt Lake valley.

The datacenter controversy has nothing to do with caring about the environment and is a complete scam that preys on low-information voters. It is a product of outside Chinese money being funneled into US politics to hobble the US in Artificial Intelligence.

> It is a product of outside Chinese money being funneled into US politics to hobble the US in Artificial Intelligence

Or this could be Russian propaganda, to manipulate US opinion against China in this case. What are your sources?

Without evidence to the contrary, the prevailing narrative is more likely correct- people have been told by the tech titans that AI will change everything and they'll loose their jobs, so they don't like it.

In fact, whoever is saying the Chinese are tricking Americans may be trying to get more people to support US big-tech's AI build-out (or stock market bubble) by appealing to nationlism - that the Chinese will get us. A double cross.

> refineries a few blocks away from residential neighborhoods

Seems like something that ought to be addressed as well, and should not be used as a justification for other lousy things.

> It is a product of outside Chinese money being funneled into US politics to hobble the US in Artificial Intelligence.

Please provide citations and evidence for this assertion. As it stands, this is an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory.