On: Chevron signs 20-year power agreement with Microsoft for West Texas data center

[sidewndr46]

Replace "extremely cheap" with "zero cost" and you've got it correct. Texas at night is an endless sea of flare stacks. We burn off an unbelievable amount of natural gas just to get rid of it.

[otterley → sidewndr46]

I've often wondered how this is lawful under the EPA. Obviously it must be, but it seems like a gross oversight to allow people to just burn natural gas and allow its byproducts to escape into the atmosphere yet not get any useful work out of it.

[sidewndr46 → otterley]

It's legal because the government allows it. How else would it work?

[otterley → sidewndr46]

Thanks, Captain Obvious. ;) the underlying question was why (although I used the word how and that’s on me).

[bob1029 → otterley]

The alternative is significantly worse.

[otterley → bob1029]

Which alternative are you thinking of?

[bob1029 → otterley]

Allowing methane to escape unburned

[otterley → bob1029]

I would assume that if we were banning the uncontrolled release of its combustion products, we’d also be banning the uncontrolled release of methane into the atmosphere.