> In Texas, a dramatic increase in data centers for crypto mining is touching off a debate over whether they are a costly drain on an overtaxed grid. An analysis by the consulting firm Wood Mackenzie found that the energy needed by crypto operations aiming to link to the grid would equal a quarter of the electricity used in the state at peak demand. Unlike data centers operated by big tech companies such as Google and Meta, crypto miners generally don’t build renewable-energy projects with the aim of supplying enough zero-emissions energy to the grid to cover their operations.
> The result, said Ben Hertz-Shargel, who authored the Wood Mackenzie analysis, is that crypto’s drain on the grid threatens to inhibit the ability of Texas to power other energy-hungry operations that could drive innovation and economic growth,
Labor is legally entitled to vote but practically prevented from doing so - time off from work is hard to come by in America and states like Texas make it a point to have as few polling places as possible with as few hours as possible in the locations that "labor" lives and works.
Also, labor "votes" for representatives, but money votes for bills.
Energy/resources can't vote, but they can fund campaigns easier than labor. There's also some complications around taxing energy/resources since some businesses operate on thin margins. Not that taxing labor is simple, but taxing energy isn't as simple as tacking on a tax per kWh.
Eg smelting aluminum is extremely energy intensive and important (gotta recycle those cans), but I bet their margins are awful and further I would bet that "energy/resources" comprises the majority of their expenditure (that basically only leaves wages as untaxed).
It's certainly not impossible, it's how we did taxes up til the New Deal, but we would need to be very careful not to crash essential, energy-intensive industries like metal smelting.
Looking at Tuesday's ballots, the modus operandi of voting in Texas appears to mostly consist of people toeing the line on some of the most absurd and leading questions I have ever read in my life [1]
