"From simple searches to chatGPT, the big digital buildup threatens the grid and water supplies."
"This May, STaX Capital Partners applied for a permit to install turbines fueled by methane from oil wells on Alaska’s North Slope. The temporary facilities would serve as a proof of concept for a much larger gas-fired power plant — with an output equal to that of the state’s largest coal-fired plant — all of whose electricity would go to a planned bitcoin-mining data center located nearby.
The Alaska-based company told Northern Journal it hopes to “create the playbook for sustainable, at-scale Bitcoin mining in Alaska.”
But “sustainable” bitcoin mining is an oxymoron, given the enormous amounts of power and water data centers consume. The massive server banks that run nearly every aspect of our digital world churn away in warehouse-like buildings in Phoenix, Las Vegas, rural Washington and Wyoming, each gobbling as much electricity as a small city to process AI queries, cryptocurrency extraction and other aspects of our increasingly cloud-based society. The harder they work, the hotter they get, and the more power and water they need to cool off."
Jonathan Thompson reports for High Country News July 28, 2025.
SEE ALSO:
"With AI Plan, Trump Keeps Chipping Away At A Foundational Environmental Law" (AP)
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