British Columbia proposed legislation to limit how much electricity will be available to artificial intelligence data centers, and moved to permanently ban new cryptocurrency mining projects.
The government of Canada’s third-most populous province will prioritize connections to its power grid for other purposes like mines and natural gas facilities because they provide more jobs and revenue for people in BC, the energy ministry said Monday.
“Other jurisdictions have been challenged to address electricity demands from emerging sectors and, in many cases, have placed significant rate increases on the backs of ratepayers,” the department said Monday.
That’s a reference to US states like Virginia and Maryland, where a proliferation of the power-hungry data centers needed for AI appears to be pushing up citizens’ power bills, according to a Bloomberg analysis. BC “is receiving significant requests for power” from these industries, Energy Minister Adrian Dix said at a press conference.
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Look, just use renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. It’s not about people being “environmentalists”, it’s about acknowledging that the amount of greenhouse gases is already rising too quickly. So if you insist on using fossil fuels, then your goal is to use fossil fuels, not to build the data centers. If on the other hand, your goal is to build a data center, then we’ll all be fine with renewable energy.