Matt B.

father of 3; history enthusiast; music afficionado

[Nathan Leamer @NathanLeamerDC]

Calls for a national data center moratorium is economic seppuku. The following would be decimated overnight:

-Across the US, building of data centers created 4.7 million construction jobs

-A standard 500-megawatt data center requires roughly 30,000 truckloads of concrete, structural steel, and copper. Congrats to all involved

-Brookings found counties that build their first data center see total private employment rise by 4%-5%.

-Data centers significantly reduce local residents tax burden and can enable for community benefits like teacher bonuses.

[𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 @Arkanservative]

Lower taxes, record-high job creation, and dramatically improving student test scores? Keep it up, Arkansas!

[Ross Cranford @rosscranford]

1/ Theo Von’s recent viral rant attacking data centers as "evil" warehouses where "loose data" flies around sounds hilarious, but it actually perfectly captures a massive, growing American panic. 🧵

[John Bistline @JEBistline]

To estimate whether data centers raise electricity bills, you need to solve a classic econometric problem: data centers pick low-price locations, which makes them look good. Our solution involves Dwight Eisenhower. New working paper with Asa Watten and Geoff Blanford 🧵

[Zachary Hall @WxZachary]

BAD FLOODING - pray for southwest Arkansas guys.

It’s been a tough couple of days in this area due to persistent storms and heavy rainfall.

This is from the school in Nashville (Arkansas) just a few moments ago as another storm rolled through.

There are many homes and businesses that have taken on significant flood water today.

Photo submitted to the Arkansas Weather Network from Dana Knighton.

[Steve Everley @saeverley]

"County officials also say the county receives about $26 in tax revenue for every $1 spent providing services to data centers."
https://t.co/mThOOIbn1J

[Rep. Jodey Arrington @RepArrington]

In the real world, if you fail to do your job, there are consequences.

Yet when Congress fails to pass appropriations on time, the burden falls squarely on seniors, service members, and hardworking Americans.

I introduced the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act to force Congress to stay in Washington until it finishes its work.

And the American people agree!

A new YouGov national poll found:
📊 81% support forcing Congress to stay in D.C. until appropriations are complete
📊 80% think the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act should receive a vote
📊 66% are more likely to support lawmakers who back the bill

Congress should be held to the same standard as every family, farmer, rancher, and business owner in America: do your job, meet your responsibilities, and don't go home until the work is done.

[Rep. Aaron Pilkington 🇻🇦🇺🇸 @pilkingtonforar]

The need for power is great, not only for Data Centers but for all kinds of manufacturing and economic development. We should be pushing full steam ahead with Nuclear energy. #arpx

[Joe Barrow @barrowjoseph]

New paper: every law in America is technically public. But not really, until now!

With @DenisPeskoff at UC Berkeley, we built a corpus of ~every publicly accessibly city and county law, and released a huge chunk of it!

2.2 million laws, you're (probably) covered in it!

🧵

[Logan Dobson @LoganDobson]

In 15 years states will be scratching their heads wondering why they didn’t build more of the magic buildings full of computers that throw off millions in property taxes while consuming minimal water and helping pay for the modernization of the electric grid

[Steve Everley @saeverley]

To all who say “data centers aren’t needed”:

Teachers in Louisiana are set to receive $50,000 bonuses thanks to a nearby data center.
https://t.co/WOrOo4EgVp

[Rand Paul @RandPaul]

This is concerning. We need to stop borrowing against our children and grandchildren’s future and start balancing the budget.

https://t.co/pZtOYIVpzV

[Rep. Aaron Pilkington 🇻🇦🇺🇸 @pilkingtonforar]

US golf courses use as much water in about 1.7 days as Amazon’s data centers did in the entire year.

[Owen Lewis @is_OwenLewis]

Big scary number, but let's put it in perspective.

US almond farming: ~1.53–1.79 trillion gallons/year (mostly California). ~610–715× more water.

US golf courses: ~531B gallons/year. ~212× more water.

And, all that water is nice and renewable.

[David Ray @DavidARay]

If Arkansas still had a 7.0% income tax like we did in 2012, we’d have the 11th highest in the nation (& worst in the SEC). Instead, we rank 34th, which is a massive improvement in our competitiveness. Much more work to be done, but we’re on the right path! #arpx #arleg

[Justin Hill @statelinx]

@AmyKremer @TexasGOP @realhumansfirst Before you start telling people they use a ton of water, make sure you understand that a data center uses less water than a golf course.

[Jeremy Horpedahl 🥚📉 @jmhorp]

People act like it's a mystery or fraud that caused federal spending to explode since 2015

Here's the breakdown of the increase

Interest: 30%
Social Security: 20%
Medicare: 13%
Medicaid: 10%
Non-defense discretionary: 10%
Defense: 5%

That's 90% of the increase

[Logan Dobson @LoganDobson]

Holy cow — OpenAI says they tracked & shut down a ring of Chinese-communist-linked accounts using AI to generate anti-AI and anti-data-center messaging to influence Americans.

[Logan Dobson @LoganDobson]

Virginia is voluntarily joining a greenhouse gas reduction network that will drive up energy costs.

People will blame data centers. They’ll be lying, but they’ll do it.

[Patrick Hedger @pat_hedger]

The nuances of tax policy unfortunately obscure just how much data centers contribute to their communities.

Building things that serve people is good and oftentimes VERY good.

Data centers are bringing the growth and investment small communities have begged for.