By Sarah Ladd | Health and policy reporter
This morning, energy and environment reporter Liam Niemeyer brings us a detailed look at where data centers are planned, rumored and operating around Kentucky.
We also have an opinion piece by former Congressman John Yarmuth, who warns that voters will never be satisfied with the governments they elect if they focus more on politics than policy.
Thank you for reading the Kentucky Lantern.
Electricity transmission lines reach across the Ohio River and connect to the Mill Creek Generating Station in Jefferson County. (Liam Niemeyer/Kentucky Lantern)
By Liam Niemeyer
Ever since Kentucky lawmakers approved statewide sales tax breaks for hyperscale data centers, developers are eyeing the state as a place to build these potentially massive, electricity-intensive operations.
The state has long been home to smaller data centers that power various online services such as digital cloud storage. But with the surge of billions of dollars of artificial intelligence investment from technology companies, expansive data centers coined as “hyperscale” that can consume a similar amount of electricity as an entire power plant have been proliferating across the country.
A growing share of Americans appears willing, in our ultra-polarized times, to put partisan or ideological loyalties ahead of democracy, a review of polls, focus groups and other analyses shows. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
COMMENTARY
By John Yarmuth
Almost 20 years ago, Kentucky native Bill Bishop wrote “The Big Sort,” a very prescient book that provided an analysis of how Americans were organizing their lives according to their political identities. They were choosing where to live, work, and play based on their desire to be among people who shared their political philosophy.
As our politics were becoming more polarized, Americans were manifesting their political alignment with their lifestyle decisions.
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