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  • Hacker News
  • Funnily enough this probably the most safetyist thing the administration could do at the moment, since this will certainly autocatalyze more opposition to DC construction in a bunch of states and probably accelerate the state-level moratoriums. A big thank you to the White House for taking AI pause as such an urgent priority.
    by Analemma_
  • https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-proposes-streamline-sta...
    by l1n
  • Probably an oversimplified question but how do we actually stop this?
    by childofhedgehog
  • 1. Vote

    2. Vote

    3. Vote

    4. Find every publicly accessible local forum with _your_ representatives at every level, and get on the mic. Tell your reps they will lose your vote and the votes of your entire network for complicity in harm against society on behalf of the billionaire class. Follow through on that threat.

    Extreme option: Run for election yourself on the platform and get voted into office. The bar is lower than ever in some places.

    by schainks
  • Thousands of people marching on data centers and taking them over at the same time.

    Elections will never save you when the parties in power serve the billionaires.

    by crawfordcomeaux
  • Scrap the current forms of elected representation with one that encourages multiple parties instead of a forced dichotomy. Create some kind of constant recall mechanism for elected officials. And other things.
    by unethical_ban
  • Why do you want to stop this? Data centers are not some enemy of the people.
    by mlindner
  • If such reviews are required by legislation then you stop it in the courts; approvals without legally required steps are invalid.

    If they are not required by legislation then you just deal with the change.

    While you're thinking about this, realize even the Democrats are annoyed at how weaponized things like NEPA have become to slow down necessary changes.

    by pfdietz
  • Unfortunately the answer is ”it requires effort”, or in other words: Vote (and hold them accountable after the ballots have been counted), Shout (literally), Protest (including civil disobedience), join any civil or environmental movement, help file legal challenges.

    Democracy is for good and for worse not a one-and-done thing, it is a continuous fight.

    by Y-bar
  • A good start is to vote in the midterms to reduce the amount of power that these antihuman criminals have. The US is currently in the midst of a serious political disaster and there will be no quick fix to any of this. But if we take every opportunity possible whenever we can to rid ourselves of these people and to stand in their way as much as possible, we can work our way back from the brink.
    by JohnFen
  • Antis are running out of time to stop what they wish to stop without resorting to destructive methods (bold and extreme action is already necessary).

    Pros are running out of time to square their ambitions with a public that's about to go from needing a leg up to a public that wants their heads.

    by 59percentmore
  • public forums should be for exchanging ideas and not a place to virtue signal whatever fad Nextdoor/Facebook emotional bait normies are feeding each other via brain rot feeds.

    the public essentially has little interest in preventing human extinction. And tons of interest in preventing data centers under false arguments and performative displays.

    What is the point of empowering the public when they are not curious but rather emotional children.

    Basically, to empower the public now means, how to bastardize your arguments into an emotional narrative that is palatable to the commoners but probably misses all relevant arguments.

    Like if you think x-risk is real, and datacenters are benign/reasonable/can-be-done-in-net-local-positive-way - then you are incentivized to pretend like datacenter are bad because peasants will not entertain your x risk calculus.

    It's a herding/shepherding game where the only people willing to play are compromised.

    by sagebird
  • >the public essentially has little interest in preventing human extinction.

    yes, most people don't belong to that cult

    by atomicthumbs
  • > It's a herding/shepherding game where the only people willing to play are compromised.

    This is how all politics is, and frankly the existential risk crowd needs to learn how to play the game instead of complaining about it.

    by scared_together
  • > Basically, to empower the public now means, how to bastardize your arguments into an emotional narrative that is palatable to the commoners but probably misses all relevant arguments.

    It's just to mobilize NIMBYs, a thing everyone was against when people were trying to protect their neighborhood against construction projects that would increase noise and stress the local public infrastructure, like high density housing.

    But now that there's a different noisy project stressing public infrastructure, NIMBY seems like the right move, I guess.

    by parineum
  • These changes will last exactly as long as this administration, so it would be a pretty foolish business that makes long term investment decisions based on this announcement.
    by snowwrestler
  • Well, in part you are correct but look how the billionaires set up Vance as the next "elected" boss right now - it is quite a lot in the recent media, how Vance single-handedly rescues babies at night while being blindfolded. I think these anti-people changes that are harmful to them, will remain. Trump is just the old dementia guy; Vance "my eyeliners are perfect" will follow after "winning" the next election. And then nobody will admit to ever having voted for him - and people will be very befuddled, almost as if an oligarchy runs the show.
    by shevy-java
  • The bet is that the democrats won’t have the spine to force AI companies to eat a loss on half a trillion dollars worth of data centers, and it’s frankly a pretty good one.
    by roughly
  • What are the odds right now this administration is still in power in 2030?
    by testing22321
  • The changes may not last, but it’s quite unusual for an already-permitted facility to lose permission to operate.
    by amluto
  • It'll last exactly as long as the Republicans being in power, which could be longer than this administration.
    by hn993302
  • It's a pretty foolish business plan to depend on wrecking the planet.

    I get one small comfort knowing that Wall Street will be increasingly under water as the climate disaster progresses (remember Sandy?).

    by imglorp
  • ftfa "provide the state and local agencies most familiar with local issues the discretion to determine whether, when, and for how long to provide opportunities for public participation."

    so give local government the controls, that doesn't seem so bad. As for the next line in the article saying people are losing faith in their local government i don't buy that a bit. Local government and elections are where your vote and voice are loudest. The most faith lost seems to be at the federal level.

    Triggering articles like this are usually not so alarming if you take the time to read them and fish out the details. They're made for social media distribution and engagement from the headline alone.

    by chasd00
  • Here's the thing... pollution is a global issue. We share the same atmosphere, we share the same grid, we share the same resources to generate energy.

    So no this isn't an issue for local governments who can be easily bribed, it's absolutely something the federal gov should be all over. This isn't some "gotcha" you're offering, it's damning.

    by EA-3167
  • I can’t believe we’re seeing so much bad news coming from EPA. Why all this backtracking from an agency that used to be so effective and well organized? Well, I guess we know the reason.
    by twsted
  • I agree with the sentiment but you lack context. The SuperFund has been a training ground for stall-and-pad-billing for decades. Certain bureaucrats gained lifetime employment for stall-and-declare skills.

    Critics on all sides have ample ammunition AFAIK

    by mistrial9
  • Bad news? This is good news.
    by nba456_
  • > an agency that used to be so effective and well organized?

    The last time the federal government had an agency that fit that description it was the Hoover FBI.

    by parineum
  • Because it's now headed by an ex-lobbyist for the chemical industry
    by hnmullany
  • The same EPA that under 5+ administrations has taken no material action to reduce the effects of climate change? Approved the widespread use of PFAS for stuff as silly as egg pans and snowboard wax, poisoning people's blood and community water supplies for decades? The same EPA that allows the use of leaded AVgas for flights over communities and schools, because otherwise a dentist might have to pay a little more for his Cessna flight?

    Gosh, they were such a paragon of environmental protection, effective and well organized in the last 40 years.

    by alex43578