New Jersey fines data center $1.1M after drone pics expose 62 gas generators(arstechnica.com)
45 pointsby voxadam4 hours ago7 comments
  • dam_jackalopes5 minutes ago
    "Backlash was immediate, however, when Vineland’s mayor and council proposed giving DataOne a $6.2 million loan."

    These poor data center operators do really need a hand up after all. Incredible. Of all of the things your municipality could use its development funds on, this would not make my shortlist.

  • ChiperSoft7 minutes ago
    Should be a million per week until the generators are removed
  • sagarm3 hours ago
    > transitioning to low emission quiet fuel cells

    Does this technology even exist? The lies are getting more brazen.

    • VogonPoetry2 hours ago
      Bloom Energy makes fuel cells that can run on natural gas. This site would need a very large number of them to replace gas generators. Each "bloom box" can create 325kW and are about 1m x 1m x 2m in size.

      They make sort of whine/squeal noise when operating. Not sure of the dB level.

      San Jose Ice Rink has had a bunch of these installed out back for about 10 years I think.

    • nancyminusone2 hours ago
      Well, most of the results on google images for "natural gas fuel cell" are of renderings or diagrams instead of actual equipment, that sould say something. Probably that they arent very common.
  • xrdan hour ago
    Wasn't colossus (Musk/grok) data center in Nashville powered by gas generators? And, xai just ignored the environmental regulation preventing it? Am I misremembering?
    • marcusban hour ago
      It is in the Memphis area - not Nashville - but yes, they use gas turbine generators.
  • lovich2 hours ago
    1.1 million dollars and they are still allowed to run the gas generators?

    I think this is inaccurately called a fine when it sounds like a retroactively applied permit fee to operate.

    • DamnInterestingan hour ago
      > retroactively applied permit fee

      This sounds like a euphemism for "bribe." And if you replace "fee" with "expense" you get a hum-dinger of an acronym.

  • herewegoan hour ago
    A $1.1M fine is a laughable penalty to a data center operator. Meanwhile, DataOne is allowed to operate the gas generators while they pursue permits... good job NJ.
    • cucumber373284230 minutes ago
      They got fined a million bucks for not having properly permitted their backup gensets, which were almost certainly included on all myriad of drawings that were part of the permitting application.

      Reeks of "someone comb over their papers and fine them so it looks like we care"

  • bell-cot3 hours ago
    > ... first spotted ‘some type of unit’ on satellite imagery ...

    > According to the NYT, the “tractor-trailer-size” generators were “impossible to miss” and certainly were not there when inspectors last visited in December 2025.

    Just how lax is NJ's regulation, for violations to be noticed from space, after a billion-dollar construction project received no inspections for 9 months?

    • cousinbryce3 hours ago
      Hard to bribe satellites, easy to bribe NJ inspectors
    • cucumber373284226 minutes ago
      The way it likely works is that SOP is to not visit or if you do don't "notice" stuff you can see from the air because if they use the GIS as their source they get to back date the fine to the date of the last GIS aerial photos and then use their magical powers of "we're the government, either sue us or bend over and take it" to let that fine stand unless they subject of the fine produces evidince of when they installed the offense which they then use to make the fine more defensible if the subject ever goes get in front of a real court.

      That's how a lot of the worse municipalities roll in my state that is very politically similar.

      Also, 9mo ago data centers weren't boogeymen the government wanted to flamboyantly turn the screws on make a "look we're serving your interests" show for the peasants.

    • dpoloncsak2 hours ago
      Yearly audits seem fair, no?
    • gamblor9562 hours ago
      Inspections are annual unless they receive complaints. This is normal. It works that way in the private world as well.
    • cyanydeez3 hours ago
      Commercial photography costs money. Hard to reconcile how public goods are all in private hands, but new jersey ain't launching satellites, they're also not going to buy daily satellite images.
      • bell-cot2 hours ago
        If NJ's inspectors can't be bothered to visit a site this large for 9 months, then would it do any good for the photography to be magically free?

        If NJ's inspectors are honest, competent, and numerous enough to actually do the job, then would cheap drones be good enough to provide quick "big picture" views?