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Daily on Energy: Talarico brings data centers into the mix in Texas

2 hours agoCenter Right

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Monday, readers! We hope you all had a restful weekend. The House is out of town, but the Senate remains in D.C. for two more weeks before the scheduled August recess to take on several key legislative priorities. But, as for tomorrow, the memorial service for Republican Sen. […]

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Red Sea shipping slows after Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia: Data

The Hill News

8 hours ago

Red Sea shipping slows after Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia: Data

Houthi attacks on Saudi oil depots along the Red Sea on Sunday led to a drop in ship traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, according to the analytics platform Kpler on Monday. The strait saw 11 cargo vessels move through the strait, the lowest number of ships to pass through in months, according to Kpler’s…

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Raw Story

8 hours ago

Red state loophoole lets data centers power up with no state or local oversight

Gov. Bill Lee last week joined 22 Republican governors in signing onto President Donald Trump’s “Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” a voluntary agreement to hold companies responsible for the costs of building, maintaining and powering data centers.The Trump administration has publicly touted the pledge as sparing taxpayers from tax and electricity rate hikes tied to data centers, even as communities across Tennessee and the U.S. push back on plans for the massive data infrastructure projects in their own backyards.Tech companies including Google, Meta and OpenAI have also signed onto the pledge, which positions data center expansion as essential to the nation’s future.“America’s continued economic and technological leadership depends on reliable, large-scale data center infrastructure built here at home,” the pledge says.On Friday, Lee posted a message of thanks to Trump for introducing the pledge.“Tennessee has shown we can lead the nation in innovation while protecting hardworking families from higher utility bills, & we’re grateful for your leadership to advance policies that strengthen our economy & secure America’s future,” Lee posted on X.There may be an appetite among voters for ratepayer protections with more teeth, according to Sarah Hunt, president and CEO of Rainey Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit public policy research organization.“Only 9% of voters that we polled had even heard that these tech companies had voluntarily signed onto this pledge that the White House had put together, and 61% of voters, after we tell them about it, want to see Congress make the Ratepayer Protection Pledge binding law,” Hunt said during a July Infrastructure Summit hosted by the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has declined to set nationwide environmental standards for data centers, instead leaving regulatory decisions to states and local governments.Tennessee lawmakers this year passed a law stipulating that owners of data centers that require at least 50 megawatts of power must pay for any infrastructure upgrades needed to produce the electricity the data center demands. Sen. Brent Taylor, a Shelby County Republican and the law’s Senate sponsor, said the law is meant to protect ratepayers from power bill increases.But the law has some caveats: if the infrastructure upgrades benefit other ratepayers or follow normal rules that apply to all large electricity customers, utilities can help data centers cover the cost.The law alternatively allows data centers to power themselves using equipment like gas-powered turbines — without state or local oversight — raising concerns from environmental groups and community coalitions who say these turbines pollute the air and emit continuous sound. Data centers may also purchase power from independent producers that operate outside of public utilities.Tennessee lawmakers did not pass six other bills introduced this year that would have set up guardrails for data centers, ranging from registration and permitting requirements to mandatory reporting on water, electricity and fuel use.Multiple local governments across the state have instituted moratoriums on data center project approvals while they create regulations for the growing industry.

Far Left

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Panicking Trump issues dark warning to GOP: ‘Stupidity brings losing and death!’

Raw Story

8 hours ago

Panicking Trump issues dark warning to GOP: ‘Stupidity brings losing and death!’

President Donald Trump issued a panicked plea Monday to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) as the clock ticks on his controversial voter ID bill known as the SAVE Act, warning the South Dakota Republican that “stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH.”“John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of, including a full and deep throated SAVE AMERICA ACT, the Budget, and the ever looming Debt Ceiling disaster, 1929!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “The Dumocrats will do it on day one, and can’t believe how lucky they got with this Senate leadership. Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!”The SAVE Act has stalled in the Senate, with Thune repeatedly claiming he lacks the votes to advance the bill. As a means to force through the SAVE Act, Trump has pressed Thune to eliminate the filibuster, a Senate rule that effectively blocks legislation from advancing in Congress’ upper chamber without 60 votes. Thune has consistently resisted pressure to do so.Described by some critics as a form of “voter suppression,” The SAVE Act would require voters to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote, something experts say could pose hurdles for the 52% of voters who don’t possess a passport and the 11% who don’t have access to their birth certificate. The bill would also disproportionately affect voters with lower incomes, who make up a significant share of Democratic Party voters.

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Reason.com

10 hours ago

§ 230 Preempts Texas Mandates on Social Media Platforms, Fifth Circuit Holds by 2-1 Vote

An excerpt from the long opinion in Computer & Comm. Industry Ass'n v. Paxton, decided Friday by Fifth Circuit Judges… The post § 230 Preempts Texas Mandates on Social Media Platforms, Fifth Circuit Holds by 2-1 Vote appeared first on Reason.com.

Center Right

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Plot Thickens – New Jersey Data Contractor Says Noncitizens Registering to Vote Not Our Error

The Last Refuge

Yesterday

Plot Thickens – New Jersey Data Contractor Says Noncitizens Registering to Vote Not Our Error

The contractor responsible for the software used by the New Jersey Dept of Motor Vehicles to uplink voter registration to the state elections office is now saying their software did not cause 6,600 illegal aliens to be registered voters. Someone in New Jersey government had to create that link to register the voters. The USA […] The post Plot Thickens – New Jersey Data Contractor Says Noncitizens Registering to Vote Not Our Error appeared first on The Last Refuge.

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ICE to Reopen Private Prison as Massive North Carolina Detention Center

Truthout

Yesterday

ICE to Reopen Private Prison as Massive North Carolina Detention Center

The 1,400-bed facility comes as the Trump administration ramps up immigrant detention nationwide.

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Sen. Kennedy says Trump likes daily strikes on Iran: ‘Sometimes you have to kill a few chickens to scare the monkeys’

The Hill News

Yesterday

Sen. Kennedy says Trump likes daily strikes on Iran: ‘Sometimes you have to kill a few chickens to scare the monkeys’

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Sunday said President Trump likes the daily strikes on Iran, which paused going into the weekend after nearly two straight weeks of attacks on Iranian infrastructure. “I think we ought to continue the blockade and starve them out,” Kennedy said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan. “I…

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Energy prices rise in defiance of Trump campaign promises

The Hill News

Yesterday

Energy prices rise in defiance of Trump campaign promises

President Trump ran on a pledge to bring down energy costs, but a year and a half into his second term, prices of both gasoline and electricity are rising. While he was on the campaign trail, Trump promised to cut power prices by 50 percent. “Under my leadership, the United States will commit to the…

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Daily on Energy: Talarico brings data centers into the mix in Texas

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Daily on Energy: Talarico brings data centers into the mix in Texas

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