Northern Virginia DataCenter Alley – 40% of Internet Traffic

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When you type a question into chat GPT
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and it spits back an answer in two
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seconds, it feels like magic. But it's
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not magic. Your query goes into a giant
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building like this. We're good. No, no,
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no. Apparently, we're not allowed to
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film here. This is Data Center Alley in
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Northern Virginia, and it may just be
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the most important place in the country
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that you've never heard of. Roughly 40%
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of the internet passes through Data
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Center Alley. These are massive, massive
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buildings. Look at these. They've
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already built 200 data centers in the
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area and 100 more are under
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construction, though much of it is
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shrouded in secrecy. So, Black Rockck
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owns this data center.
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The reason why I stopped you is so we're
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not allowed to take photos. Our biggest
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problem as a country, we post too much
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on YouTube. By the end of this
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video, you will understand what a data
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center is, see the massive scale of this
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operation with your own eyes, hear what
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locals actually think about them, and
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understand why they are so shrouded in
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secrecy.
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I don't know a single person in this
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area, at least my neighborhood, who
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works in the data center. Actually,
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insurance prices, everything, everything
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get higher.
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Let's investigate data center alley.
DC Suburb AI Boom
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When you hear AI boom, you probably
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think of Silicon Valley, but much of
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it's happening in the quiet suburb of
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Ashurn, Virginia. This map right here
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shows the locations of all the data
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centers in Ashurn. Northern Virginia has
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more hypers scale data centers, the kind
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needed for Chat GBT and other major AI
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companies than any other city in the
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world. So why do they call this area
Local Interview
1:37
data center alley? Oh, most of the data
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centers are near to the highway and
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there's a big chasm. There's like 120
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that are built now that are here in this
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area. This is the highest level in the
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world of data center concentration.
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There may be positives. That's why
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they're here in the first place. But
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it's like opening the door to a huge
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uh monster that we don't know how to
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deal with. I
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I cannot describe to you how massive
Driving around the Data Centers
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these data centers are. And it is just
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unbelievable
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how huge these are. I'm we're like
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shocked driving through this this
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facility here. This is just an example
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of one of the 200 data centers in Lowden
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County. But this is just a massive
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facility. Here's another one. Over 40%
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of Virginia's electric grid goes to
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power buildings like this one. Black
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Rockck owns this data center. Before we
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get to this security guy's confrontation
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though, you need to have a better sense
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of what happens at these data centers
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and hear why the residents we talked to
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don't like them. Then you can hear his
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argument supporting them.
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It's our national security in the United
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States.
What Happens Inside a Data Center?
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So what does happen inside these data
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centers?
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A data center is the brains of the
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internet, the engine of the internet.
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It is a giant building with a lot of
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power, a lot of cooling, and a lot of
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computers. It's row upon row upon row of
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machines.
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Data centers are the physical backbone
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of digital infrastructure, housing
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servers and the equipment to run
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everything from AI and basic internet
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functions.
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These data centers generate enormous
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amounts of money for the county. So
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locals must be thrilled, right?
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Lowden County gets a billion dollars a
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year from the 200 data centers that are
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in Lowden County. That means that every
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data center in Lowden County generates
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about $5 million a year in tax revenue.
Local Concerns
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Well, they planning on building a strong
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like something that is huge which power
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line thing like the 450. So they want to
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build a massive power tower here.
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People losing their mind rightly so
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I would not want my kids to be exposed
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to that kind of
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Yeah.
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Um and it's dangerous. I mean kids are
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kids. They may touch it, they get
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electrified. I mean I mean
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they are children. I'm going to share my
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opinion. I'm happy to share it but I
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don't think it matter because I'm not
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the big dog. I'm no one.
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So simply put for people wondering
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they're deciding on building this
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massive tower.
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Yeah.
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And of course Amazon's putting money to
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to support it. The residents may not
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support it. But you're you're saying
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that Amazon's probably going to win that
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fight.
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I mean I don't see how not.
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Have you seen electric prices go up?
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Have your electric bill. Yeah. Insurance
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prices, everything went
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to the point that I noticed. HOA,
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everything got higher every almost every
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3 months.
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Literally, but campaign is running on
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underground power lines. That's how big
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of an issue these power lines are here.
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We're seeing a lot of petitions like
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this one, no power lines.org, of people
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saying too much power infrastructure.
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We're tired of it. I don't know a single
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person in this area, at least my
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neighborhood, who works in the data
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center. Actually,
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what's your take on the explosion in
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data centers around here?
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You know, I really did not expect this
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to happen. I moved here like maybe 15
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years back. When I came through Lorden
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County to this community, that place was
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completely empty, but it's all data
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centers. uh I know the people here are
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really concerned about uh you know um
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the noise pollution electricity rates
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going up water problems maybe in the
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future because of the usage of the data
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centers so a lot of concerns but then I
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know I think I'm somewhere in the middle
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you need development at the same time
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you cannot be concerned about things
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that you really don't know what's going
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to happen so there are two things right
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again to it the data centers contribute
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a lot to the tax which has helped Lon
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County keep the property taxes low, but
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at the same time, you know, with the
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power lines running through the
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communities, it's surely going to bring
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down the value of the homes. The power
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lines are going to run through Lon
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County Parkway. It's a nice uh road
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right now. If those 500 KV power lines
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are going to be laid out there, it's not
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it's going to look ugly basically, you
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know, other than the health concerns.
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The data centers don't employ a lot of
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people. They employ very very little
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people. So it's like you know to run a
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huge data center you may need like 40 50
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people but it's not like you know
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100,000 square foot facility you know
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you don't have thousands of people
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working for them.
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It's true. He's exactly right. Data
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centers typically employ 50 full-time
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workers in their 250,000 ft facilities.
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The majority of jobs they do create are
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temporary construction jobs up to 1,500
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per site. Building one will employ
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roughly 1,500 workers. And so what are
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the perspective of homeowners who live
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around here?
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The perspective is the value of their
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homes going down. That's the main focus.
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They don't want the high wires. And as a
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parent myself, I'd be worried about it.
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You know,
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how close to the school system is it
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going to be? Cuz you know there that
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puts off a sound.
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So what's the vibration? How bad's the
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vibration? It's like living next to the
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airport. When you take off, you hear
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that plane take off. You're like, we
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hear about it and we get complaints
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about it, but
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it's not much we can do. It's not that
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big a mass of employment with
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it's just
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storage.
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Yeah,
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that's what you get.
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But the real question is why are they
Why Virginia?
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all in northwestern Virginia? We met up
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with the Roka reader and local named
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Patrick to discuss.
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Russia makes diamonds, Max.
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Oh,
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see I was always curious when the data
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centers popped up. Like five years ago,
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I noticed them and I was like, why are
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they building them here? There's a thing
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called data gravity. My brother works
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for Amazon data guy. And it's like it's
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cheaper and faster if you're closer to
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all the data that's already there.
“Data Gravity”
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It's not just data gravity that makes
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Ashurn, Virginia, the nucleus of the
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data center industry. Other reasons
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include its proximity to DC and all of
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its government, national security work.
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The area has a rich internet history
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that dates back to government projects
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in the 70s and Netscape and AOL in the
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'90s. And also the fact that this area
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is relatively safe from natural
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disasters. That makes outages like the
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recent AWS one, which by the way took
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place in data center alley rare.
Local Insights
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Did the camera pick that up? Is there a
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lot of opportunity out here? Do the data
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centers create a lot of jobs?
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Yeah, my buddy actually works for QTS,
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which is like a construction data center
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thing.
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Don't quite get the lock you're getting.
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I'm at Have you seen or heard about
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electricity prices going up around here?
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So, it has gone up a little bit.
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Obviously, 25% of the state's energy
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right now and then they're saying by
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like 2030 it'll be up to 50% of the
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state's energy. So, that's definitely a
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consideration like one of the bigger
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implications I would say. By the way,
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this isn't Patrick's first time in front
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of a big internet audience. He went mega
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viral years ago with this high school
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goal. By the way, we did not cherrypick
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these conversations. Our mission at ROA
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is to capture the world without bias or
8:52
fear. And if you support that mission,
8:54
please make sure to hit subscribe. Also,
8:56
consider becoming a member to support
8:58
our original journalism by clicking in
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the link in our pin comment or
9:02
description. You'll get unbiased news
9:04
delivered to your inbox daily or in our
9:06
daily app. Now, back to Ashurn. They're
Water Usage Concerns
9:08
taking water from the PTOIC and they are
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only sending 30% back. So, wow.
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The river is less water and it goes
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further downstream and more people have
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to use it, too.
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She's not wrong.
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One thing about data centers that
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doesn't get talked about enough is how
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much water they use. So, 2% of all the
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water used in the Ptoic River Basin
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cools data center servers. This summer
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that goes up to 8% and if trends hold
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it'll go to over 30%
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of the Ptoic River basin water. That's a
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lot of water indeed. The environmental
Environmental Costs
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costs of data centers are substantial.
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They affect locals both from an energy
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perspective and from a water
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perspective. And that's not just folding
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in Lowden County, the home of Ashurn,
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but also in the nearby Prince William
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County where many new data centers are
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being built. We met up with the director
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of its conservation alliance named
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Ashley Studholm to learn more about
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these issues.
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We are in a situation where we are
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literally trading in our real world for
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a virtual one. There was an application
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for a data center to be built next to
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Prince William Forest Park, one of our
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national parks. Then comes in this other
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proposal which was called the the Prince
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William Digital Gateway and that was
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being proposed by our other national
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park,
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Manasses Battlefield. And so all of a
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sudden we have two national parks and
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they're both being threatened by data
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centers. From a conservation
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perspective, we just want them where it
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makes sense, where the infrastructure
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is, where the power lines already are.
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There are several water resources. We
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are here in front of one of them. This
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is the Aacoin reservoir. The data center
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industry is one of the richest
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industries that we've ever seen. The
Data Center Riches
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industry is extremely rich and includes
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the biggest companies in the world like
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Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, but also
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massive companies you've never heard of
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like Equinex, which is now one of
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America's 150 most valuable companies
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and more valuable than PayPal, Ford, and
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Airbnb. So, yes, tough competition.
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Initially, they were paying $1 million
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per acre. That has increased. Now
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they're at like I think like 4 million
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an acre. It keep the number keeps going
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up. If a data center is interested in
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that, how are we going to compete with
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that? They should be the ones paying for
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it, not us as rateayers cuz the way it
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is right now, all of the customers are
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paying for those infrastructure
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upgrades. You know, everything that I
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access on my phone right now, that's
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with data centers that currently exist.
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The ones that are going up now is
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largely driven by speculative like what
11:59
are the needs are for generative AI. We
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continue down this trend without any
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legislation to increase accountability
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and transparency. We are looking at
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doubling our rates by 2030.
Massive Scale
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After talking with Ashley, we kept
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driving around and around. And despite
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seeing more of these data centers, the
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scale of all of it continued to blow us
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away. And we had never heard of any of
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these data center companies. You could
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look them up and see their multi-billion
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dollar enterprises, but they're all so
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secretive. We started googling them. And
Blackrock Data Center
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one of the first we did research on was
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this one. In a recent multi-billion
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dollar acquisition, Black Rockck and a
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few other partners like Nvidia and
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OpenAI, they bought this company, Align
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Data Centers. And oh my goodness, look
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at how tall this building is. These data
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centers are massive. How you doing?
Caught by Security
12:52
No sir, we're just making a YouTube
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video on data centers.
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Reason why I stopped you is we're not
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allowed to take photos. Data centers are
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what they are. Our biggest problem as a
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country, we post too much on
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YouTube. I understand that people don't
13:05
like them. Maybe they don't understand
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them. I just work here. But that's also
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security. Okay? It's our national
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security in the United States.
13:14
Yeah.
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This is where we store our data. Those
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pictures you're posting on YouTube, if
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it weren't for that data center, you
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wouldn't be able to post them. I'm
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ex-military. Okay. I fought for my
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country. I fought for the your right to
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to take that picture.
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I appreciate that.
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However, if you post this stuff, you
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post stuff on YouTube that goes to
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everybody everybody in the country. I
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know a lot of people don't like the data
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centers. That's the biggest thing. I
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don't think they understand them, but uh
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everything that you see on the phone,
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your games, your videos, your YouTube,
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all that. Where do you think it goes?
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There.
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Into there. and it gets it gets funneled
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out. It's just like the oil.
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Everybody everybody's against the oil,
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but they don't understand it. Everything
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you're wearing is made out of oil. I
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think people need to be more aware of
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what's going on in our country
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um in in in the world.
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Someone called said people are taking
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pictures.
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You go down there, go left, there's I
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mean a thousand more.
Outro
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So despite all the water, power, health,
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societal, and other costs of these data
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centers, this construction manager is
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right. You depend on data centers for
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your daily life. You wouldn't be
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watching this video without these data
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centers and our national security does
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largely depend on them. Though the fact
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that these employed so few people, cost
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so much in resources, and enrich just a
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select few did make us feel that the
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debate's not going anywhere. And our job
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at ROA is to investigate major issues
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like this without an agenda, talking to
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locals and reporting on the facts. Now,
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our next video leaves Data Center Alley
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and goes to a place that's pretty much
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the opposite. The National Radio Quiet
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Zone in West Virginia, where most people
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don't even have cell phones, much less
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access to Chat GPT in their daily lives.
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To watch our video in the quietest place
15:01
in America, hit subscribe.