HN

Comments (124)

• randusername
  We are creating the final boss of tragedy of the commons.I used to think we were progressing up an exciting tech tree. That seems naive now.Water, land, energy, the soundscape, intellectual property that incentivizes the dissemination of good ideas, digital networks of information and self-expression, perhaps even the economic value of expertise itself are all being sacrificed in the now for promises of utopia in the future.Precious eggs to give to those promising a utopian omelet, eventually.
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  dathinab
  which means nothingbecause no one believes there are legal consequences if they don'tand there are a lot of ways to doge it even if there where a reliable government in placelike especially if they do what they have been doing recently (run their own generator, build their own power planes) a lot of this cost is implicit and as such very dogeable. E.g. higher cost for gas power planes for other due to major increase of demand, higher medical cost due to more air pollution, higher fuel prices, etc. etc. (not even speaking about anything climate change).
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  throwaw12
  > The agreement is meant to help mitigate concerns that big tech’s datacenters are driving up US electricity costs for homes and small businessesExactly opposite will happen. Reason is, when Big Tech is paying huge amounts of money to contractors to build those power generation facilities and service companies to service it, they will abandon servicing other facilities (remember how Micron dropped consumer RAMs last year because of enterprise demand) or require higher pay from everyone else
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  miyoji
  You can read the actual pledge at [0]. The executive order regarding it is at [1].There's some speculation in the comments about what is or isn't in the pledge. I recommend reading it yourself.[0] https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/03/ratepayer-protec...[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/rate...
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  blitzar
  I pledge to bear costs of energy I use.I was unaware it was optional.
• cainxinth
  Does a “pledge” have more or less weight than a pinky promise?
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  h4kunamata
  This is USA so we all know that those techs companies won't pay a cent back at the end, but the population will.
• imchillyb
  The way to enforce this would be to provide US citizens with free electric and charge companies only.That will never happen, but would prevent we the people from bearing these costs directly.
• HumblyTossed
  I don't believe them. I don't trust corporations. At all. I look back at all the broken promises of corporations like AT&T, all while doing massive stock buy backs, and I simply don't want to hear their bullshit anymore.
• mentalgear
  Oh the "pledges" - tell me again how the Billionaire's Giving Pledge - the ultimate "pinky promise" of the 1% - is going?Launched in 2010 by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett, it was sold as a historic shift in philanthropy. Fast forward to 2026, and the data suggests it’s been more of a "Wealth Preservation Society" than a massive wealth redistribution event.This will be just as trustworthy. We need laws - not merely rhetoric pledges !
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  fulafel
  Does it include externalities (co2 emissions)?Increasing natural gas generation is of course disastrous policy with a major death toll from the climate disaster, there needs to be a rampdown of fossils use and production.
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  deadbolt
  We're all gonna end up paying for this and everyone involved knows it.
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  bob1029
  We should be focusing on how to build large turbines and transformers more quickly. A lot of transmission projects are blocked on equipment. There are warehouses full of photovoltaics that we cant use because of other industrial bottlenecks. We can build an entire PV plant before we can obtain a single custom transformer for a substation.
• cs702
  "The invisible hand" of free markets has become truly invisible...
• mcs5280
  Non-binding and voluntary = a bunch of lip service
• LunaSea
  The same way Nvidia "pledged" $100B to OpenAI?
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  NoLinkToMe
  I've seen Musk note in an interview that at year-end the bottleneck will not be CPU/RAM etc, but electricity. And new powerplants are backlogged for years.That's why he wants to go into space (10x solar potential because you don't have a day/night cycle, no clouds, no dust/rain, no temperature loss, no orientation issues, and no atmosphere reducing solar).To me it seems ridiculous, for one because sending 150kg to space costs about $500k, and this is about the weight of a solar installation that costs $800 to install and generates about $1000 worth of electricity across 20 years at utility wholesale prices.But suppose it was cheaper and viable, and earth-electricity was indeed capped, you could argue (if you believe the hype) that developing AI is an existential arms-race objective for US/China.But from what I've understood that's just not the case at all. Something like 170+ coal plants are scheduled to be decommissioned, and the average coal and gas plant runs at 40-50% of capacity, because wind/solar is eating their lunch (cheaper marginal $ per kWh). i.e. there is so little demand that these plants keep using less capacity and shutting down superfluous plants.You'd think if experts believed electricity was going to be a bottleneck, that venture capital / AI companies, or even traditional capital, would be buying up plants or signing guaranteed-usage contracts. But it doesn't seem to be the case.
• motbus3
  1y from here they will be talking how nuclear facilities are necessary
• Arubis
  I will take this as seriously as any other promise issued at the White House in this regime.
• Joel_Mckay
  Much like the price of RAM, SSD, and GPU. The ballooning data-center energy consumption costs have already broken the middle class economic-loop Westinghouse electric drove in the 1950s. Some are seeing their utility bills double.People are not voluntarily going to build things that make less profit.It is a suckers bet assuming the unscrupulous will grow a conscience. =3
• FpUser
  >"The pledge includes a commitment"Pledge my ass. It is either law mandating those massive datacenters absorb the cost with heavy penalties for non compliance or it is just BS talk (what it seems to be at the moment)
• Havoc
  Like Musk just set up his own turbines regardless of what laws sayI can see how big tech is enthusiastic about freestyling this. Eh sorry I mean bear the cost
• nixass
  Can I pledge to pay taxes?
• dolphinscorpion
  As long as they promised. Their word is golden
• stevefan1999
  Stealing from the people; enriching myself
• jmyeet
  This is really a state law issue and there's really no solution for spiralling energy costs other than nationalizing utilities or otherwise making them into state or municipal entities, much like municipal broadband.Take the case of Duke Energy in North Carolina, which illegally raised rates too much. Utilities prices are supposedly regulated but utilities work around this by simply moving costs to things they can charge whatever for (eg transmission costs vs energy costs).The NC Court of Appeals ruled that Duke Energy's actions were illegal BUT there would be no refunds for customers [1], in part because lawmakers passed a law to allow them to do this retroactively [2]. Also, if Duke Energy had to repay customers they can simply raise prices to recoup those costs even though the money was improperly charged in the first place.So consumers will keep paying for the infrastructure to connect up these data centers and will keep subsidizing the ongoing energy costs.[1]: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/no-refunds-for-duke-...[2]: https://sustaincharlotte.org/press-release-nc-lawmakers-over...
• anon
  undefined
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  yanhangyhy
  It feels like ordinary people are becoming increasingly unnecessary. With AI, data centers, and big corporations, they don’t really need ordinary people anymore apart from their own employees. Capitalists only need robots and artificial intelligence to serve them, and ordinary people could just be put in zoos for display.
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  throawayonthe
  oh well if they pledge it's okay then!
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  otterley
  I find the whole thing a little odd. They’re basically pledging to pay their electricity bills. So what? So does every business.Saying they’re going to pay for generation and transmission adds little. That’s already baked into the charges! It’s like saying they’re going to finally pay for the farmers to grow the produce and the drivers to get the produce to market when they buy apples--as though spontaneous generation and teleportation was ever an option.
• bitwize
  Some towns in my state are already complaining about the noise from turbines supplying on-site power to a data center that's been built here. They're keeping people up at night. I'm broadly supportive of a "techie go home" movement.
• powerpcmac
  The only people who believes corpo jackoffery these days are either boomers or people investing their remaining money in big line go up
• burnt-resistor
  Like trickle down economics? Fool me once ...
• campuscodi
  I've read so many of these pledges before.... tl'dr: no, they won't
• SilverElfin
  Do they pledge the costs of noise pollution and damage to water sources? Let’s be honest - these pledges are theater that reflects an agreement between tech oligarchs and the Trump administration. The pay the bribes via donations or whatever, and get back this deceptive theater show.
• pcdoodle
  [dead]
• Drunkfoowl
  [dead]
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  techblueberry
  [flagged]
• madhacker
  Trump helping tech bros sell more data centers. A pledge is moronic. You pay for what you use since time immemorial. Don't need to redefine existing words with new meaning.
• dev1ycan
  Everything that the white house says atm, they do the opposite.
• 7thpower
  Even if the pledges are in good faith, people are being naive about how utilities work.The general goal for utilities has been to pursue the next “thing” and work toward some sort of regulation to lock in demand, which can be used as a lever to seek price increases and consolidate.If there’s margin to be had, the utilities will find a way, and prices will go up either way.