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How Amazon, One of the Richest Companies in the World, Secretly Offloads Its Electricity Costs To Local Taxpayers Who Live Near Its Data Centers (bloomberg.com)
Several readers have shared this Bloomberg report: Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud computing business, is its fastest-growing and most profitable division, but it comes with a lot of upfront infrastructure costs and ongoing expenses, the biggest of which is electricity. Over the past two years, Amazon has almost doubled the size of its physical footprint worldwide, to 254 million square feet, including dozens of new data centers with vast fields of servers running 24/7. In at least two states, it's also negotiated with utilities and politicians to stick other people with the bills, piling untold millions of dollars on top of the estimated $1.2 billion in state and municipal tax incentives the company has received over the past decade.
Other companies, including Google and Tesla, have taken advantage of the power industry's hunger for growth and the relative secrecy that followed its 1990s deregulation in dozens of states. But Amazon stands out for its success in offloading its power costs and also because it dominates America's cloud business, which has gone from nonexistent to using 2 percent of U.S. electricity in about a decade. "Amazon had a huge advantage, because there weren't a lot of other sectors growing in the electricity market," says Neal Elliott, senior director of research at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a green lobbying group. The company has also ratcheted up the secrecy around who's paying for electricity, says environmental advocate Greenpeace, which calls Amazon the single biggest obstacle to industry transparency.
Other companies, including Google and Tesla, have taken advantage of the power industry's hunger for growth and the relative secrecy that followed its 1990s deregulation in dozens of states. But Amazon stands out for its success in offloading its power costs and also because it dominates America's cloud business, which has gone from nonexistent to using 2 percent of U.S. electricity in about a decade. "Amazon had a huge advantage, because there weren't a lot of other sectors growing in the electricity market," says Neal Elliott, senior director of research at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a green lobbying group. The company has also ratcheted up the secrecy around who's paying for electricity, says environmental advocate Greenpeace, which calls Amazon the single biggest obstacle to industry transparency.
You uneducated feckless Republican cunts need to go back to your failed Civics classes until you manage a C or better. (Trump hangs for treason before you graduate kiddo.)
Of course, they may learn there was a big win in total tax revenue that prevented their taxes from rising.
When these sorts of sweetheart deals have been analyzed, it's generally been found that the promised benefits to the local economy are much more anemic than hoped.
But, yeah, it's not like Amazon is behaving any differently than any other company (or sports team, or ...).
#DeleteChrome
But I thought corruption was less likely and easier to address as government gets smaller! That's what a vocal portion of the population here seems to believe, in any case...
It's interesting that you blame the 5-6 people instantly, but not the company. Perhaps if we removed the idea that companies are people that their bribing their way through life is unfair towards actual people, maybe we'd be in a better spot? Make it so that companies can't donate a single cent towards ANY politician at ANY level or offer a job for ANY politician until that political has been out of office for 1 decade. But then again, I find that \. seems to suck on corporate cock whenever they can...it's that Libertarian fantasy that's killing America.
It would make an interesting experiment, simply have the corp that is claiming to be such a benefit to the community to pay their employees in $2 bills for a month and see at the end of the month how many $2 bills end up in the community.
That is what the local AFB did in the 80s when there was some NIMBYs that wanted to shut it down, the town was so flooded with $2 bills that everyone had piles of 'em and everyone was more than happy to tell the NIMBYs to have a heaping cup of STFU.
But it would be an easy way to tell one way or the other, if the town is crapflooded with $2 bills the money is circulating in the community, if almost nobody sees a $2 bill then the corp isn't doing squat for the local area.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Data centers don't bring many jobs, except during construction. They might make it up on property tax, if they aren't giving away an indefinite exemption (and most places don't - they'll give a discount for a few years).
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.