Kris Mayes targets AI data centers as Arizona faces water, power crunch

Filed 2h ago · Via Arizona Mirror · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

News of Sorrow

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: The White House from Washington, DC · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is calling for a statewide pause on new AI data center approvals, citing a federal plan to cut 30% of the state's Colorado River supply and a Ceres analysis projecting a 450% jump in water demand if all planned Phoenix-area projects proceed. She's also holding an October town hall over a 38-acre, one-million-square-foot Menlo Digital project in Ahwatukee already drawing local opposition.

Mayes wants the legislature and Gov. Katie Hobbs to halt approvals until the state has a monitoring plan, but Republican House leadership has instead pushed bills stripping counties of authority to regulate data centers and greenlighting unproven small modular nuclear reactors on-site.

An Arizona State University study cited in her announcement found nearby data centers can raise neighborhood temperatures by up to four degrees Fahrenheit, adding a literal heat argument to the water and power one.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A state fighting over dwindling river allocations is now being asked to also hydrate server farms, and the legislative response so far is to deregulate rather than measure. Calling a pause 'the only sane thing to do' is a low bar to clear, which makes it notable that clearing it looks politically difficult anyway.

Source: Read the original at Arizona Mirror → Scored: News of Sorrow · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

Read it scored.

Every story, every clown, every kazoo — in your pocket. Music plays automatically. Regret is optional.

GET IT ON iOS GET IT ON ANDROID