Microsoft data center brings "a kind of boom" amid AI pushback
Summary
Microsoft’s data center operations have brought tax revenue and jobs to Quincy, Washington, and helped fund a high school, a hospital and other services, according to the town’s mayor. The article also reports rising local electricity rates and residents displaced to make room for data centers, amid growing opposition to new construction.Key Facts
- Microsoft has operated its Columbia Data Center in Quincy for 20 years.
- Quincy Mayor Paul Worley said data center tax revenue helped fund a new high school and hospital and improve other services.
- The Columbia River provides hydropower that has helped attract seven other data center companies to the area.
- About two dozen data centers have entered the Quincy area over the past two decades, and some residents have been asked to leave their homes to accommodate them.
- Grant County’s public utility reports that local electricity rates rose about 55% over 20 years; rates rose 107% in Washington and 66% nationally over the same period.
- Microsoft says it employs about 700 people, nearly 9% of Quincy’s population of roughly 8,000; many data center construction jobs are temporary.
- Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company pledges to pay for its own electricity use and replenish more water than it uses.
- Yale professor Kenneth Gillingham said communities should ask developers about cooling technology, facility size and how the data center will generate electricity.
Read the Full Article
This is a fact-based summary from The Actual News. Click below to read the complete story directly from the original source.
