Data centers put WA clean energy goals in jeopardy

Soundside

Across vast stretches of rural Washington, large boxy warehouses have popped up between fields of potatoes. They contain the humming infrastructure that the tech industry and users rely on to store documents in the cloud, access streaming videos, or perform internet searches.

It’s easy to see why companies put data centers in this part of the state: cheap hydro electricity, available land, and a friendly legislature in Olympia that provides tax breaks.

But now, all those data centers are gobbling up electricity, which will only intensify with the growth of AI technology.

And the growing demand is stretching the grid in rural counties, moving them farther away from green energy mandates from the state.

Lulu Ramadan and Sydney Brownstone are reporters at the Seattle Times who looked into the effects of data centers on the electrical grid and rural communities in a two part series.

Guests:

• Lulu Ramadan, investigative reporter at The Seattle Times and a distinguished fellow with ProPublica's Local Reporting Network
• Sydney Brownstone, investigative reporter at The Seattle Times

Relevant Links:

• Seattle Times: Data centers guzzle power, threatening WA’s clean energy push
• Seattle Times: Data centers got a huge tax break to create WA jobs. Is it paying off?

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