By Milt Harris ——Bio and Archives--December 18, 2022
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Ellen Osoinach, a Lawyer with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, represented the Oregonian. She attacked the transparency issue stating:
- The information is not patented,
- The information is known by only specific individuals within the company,
- The information has potential commercial value,
- In a competitive market, if disclosed, this information could be used by competitors to obtain a business advantage,
- Public interest doesn’t demand disclosure in this instance.
“The information itself is of the highest public interest. This is a limited communal resource and the west is in a drought.”
“There are data centers all over the country and right here in Oregon and the amount of water they consume is something that’s incredibly important to all water users.”You may be wondering why the city would come to the aid of Google while at the same time diminishing the concerns of its own citizens. The answer is simple; MONEY. When Google demanded more water for its cooling processes, the city agreed with one caveat, Google would pay to upgrade the city’s water system. Based on this agreement, the city council voted last fall on a $28.5 million dollar water pact with Google. For whatever reason, the lawsuit was dropped this week. The Dalles mayor stated that the city dropped the suit because Google determined that its water consumption values did not attain trade secret status. I find it curious that it took 13 months to determine such an obvious fact. In conjunction with the suit being dropped, Google also revealed its water metrics for 2021. According to Google, it withdrew 358.3 million gallons of water and discharged 83.8 million gallons for a net usage amount of 274.5 million gallons last year. While 274.5 million gallons of water represents quite a withdrawal from a drought ravaged area, it pales in comparison to other areas of the country.
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"Water is the most efficient means of cooling. When used responsibly, water cooling can play an important role in reducing emissions and mitigating climate change. Water-cooled data centers use about 10% less energy and thus emit roughly 10% less carbon emissions than many air-cooled data centers. In 2021, water cooling helped us reduce the energy-related carbon footprint of our data center portfolio by roughly 300,000 tons of CO2."
"I don't like to see the region's rivers and aquifers compromised so that Google can make money off of advertising and data sales. To me, that's a poor exchange."The State Government stated that water supplies in many of Oregon reservoirs are much lower than usual which causes:
“Significant impacts on community water supplies, agricultural yields, and the health of ecosystems."So while the state government is instructing residents to shorten their showers, and to use dropped ice cubes to water plants, Google is siphoning up 3.36 Billion gallons of water, damaging the crops of farmers and altering the lifestyle of average Americans. All of this to appease a crazed group of leftists that falsely believe fractionally reducing CO2 levels will save a planet that isn’t in danger. Sigh.
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Milt spent thirty years as a sales and operations manager for an international manufacturing company. He is also a four-time published author on a variety of subjects. Now, he spends most of his time researching and writing about conservative politics and liberal folly.