The Elise Richmond Show

ER Show w Kathy Chism 06/23/26

• Elise

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 49:27
SPEAKER_00

And now it's time for the Elise Richmond Show right here on WNAU. And now, without further ado, here's Elise.

SPEAKER_03

And welcome to the Elise Richmond Show. It's Tuesday morning, it's 11 o'clock, and that means it's time for the Elise Richmond Show. Thank you all for joining me this morning. What a gorgeous day out there. I'm really happy about that. Our guest is our own senator right here in our area, Senator Kathy Chisholm. We have a lot of subjects to discuss with her. So hang on because before we actually get to data centers and all kinds of spying flock centers and whatever, all kinds of things I didn't know a thing about until last week when I started researching. I have a couple things to say to all of you out there that I really would appreciate. Something happening. Our senator's sitting here. Maybe she has some comments about it. I don't know. In the last two weeks, I have let me start by saying this. I rescue dogs all and cats all of my life. I've worked with all kinds of rescue animal organizations. In Chicago, I've helped in Ann, Illinois, my hometown, and of course, all over in California. And one thing I can say about California, and I know no one wants to hear this, but it is true they take care of their animals. But here in Pototok County and Union County, there are no shelters. And this is really horrible. It puts a burden on the people who care, the people who take care of animals, the people who rescue animals, the people who take food to them when they're out in the woods trying to catch them and keep them from being hit in the highway. We are burdened because we have our own animals to feed and take care of, and sometimes have more animals than we probably should have because there is a group of people who have a very, very bad, bad attitude about how to take care of animals. They have no knowledge or they're just plain stupid. These are living things. They are living things. All they want is to be loved and taken care of. But no, you can take them and throw them out of a truck window onto the highway, a mother dog and a bunch of puppies, and expect someone to get out there and take care of them and find them homes. Oh my lands. Last week, one of the cutest little puppies I've ever seen in my life, absolutely adorable, and he's got a happy ending. And I'm very happy to tell you about his happy ending because a friend of mine decided that they would keep that puppy. They were going to keep him for me to help find a home. I tried, and they decided they just love this little puppy so much that they are keeping that dog. So that puppy has a happy ending, but so many of them do not have happy endings. We don't have any animal shelters, as I just said, in Pometaugh County or in Union County. What's up with that? State legislatures? What's up with that? House of Representatives? What's up with that? Where do we take these animals? Yesterday at the grocery store, I was putting the groceries out of my cart into the back of my car, and here walked up this very, very old black lab. A beautiful face, a gorgeous big old dog, and they all end up coming straight to me. Well, I had a lot of errands to run, and I had nothing I could do with that dog right then, and it breaks my heart driving away from that dog and leaving him standing there in the parking lot of the grocery store. But the last year ago, I picked up a dog in the parking lot of the grocery store and took her home, and we still have her and still trying to train her. What I'm trying to say is would you people with this farm mentality that animals don't count, that they are disposable, that you can just throw them out the door, kick them out the door, and make it someone else's problem? Veterinarians can't do this, they don't have a place. People with kennels are overloaded already because all of the mentality of we don't care and we can't deal with it, let's dump them. Let's start working on how we can raise money so that Union County and Pontiauck County has an animal shelter. I am very open to this. I'm very open to having a meeting someplace in Pontiauk, someplace in Union County, two separate meetings, get the people who care in, will start raising money, and hopefully down the line, we could have some animal shelters. So when these people who will not neuter and spay their animals so that they don't have litter after litter after litter of puppies and kitties for someone else to deal with, so that they have a place to bring their dogs. My perfect thing would be a shelter in each county with a low-cost neuter spay center right there in the shelter. And we could help these animals find homes, we could help the people who want to keep them, get them neutered and spayed, so we don't have this overrun of all of these puppies. They are not disposable folks, they are God's creatures. And we are the only people. We're the ones with the brains. We're the ones that are supposed to have compassion. We are the people to take care of them just like we need to take care of children. So think about it. Look in your newspapers, listen to this radio program, and possibly we'll get some meetings together to raise some money to make this happen. I bet you there are some farmers out there who have got some fencing right in their barn that they aren't using, and they donate it. And between all the donations of all of us, whether it's supplies, work, hours, construction people who would help build, I bet we could make this happen. Okay, that's what I'd like to ask you all about today is to be kind. And um someone else wants to say something to that too. Bob Richmond is here this morning. And what say you, Bob Richmond, about this animal problem in Union County and Bonot County?

SPEAKER_01

Also, I'd like all the people to be responsible in having dog tags collars because they're shipped, because there's so many dogs running around that probably belong to someone who just don't have a collar or something. And if you find them, you can return them. And a lot of people, you know, get upset when their dogs get lost.

SPEAKER_03

I sure do.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. And so we need to we need to do that also.

SPEAKER_03

And when we come back, it's data centers. Folks, get ready. If you don't know what I'm talking about, boy, you will know by the end of this program, so stay with us. What are your plans for celebrating America's semi-quincentennial? Well, I've got a great idea for you. Join the Pontiau County Republican women and help them celebrate America's 250th birthday. As a member of the Pontiau County Republican Women, you can stay informed through political education and activity by attending monthly meetings with timely topics presented by outstanding speakers, meet your elected officials in person, have camaraderie with like-minded Republicans, and best of all, meet new friends and have fun. The Pontaw County Republican Women's Club meets on the second Monday of the month at 6 p.m. And welcome back to the Elise Richmond Show. After that rant about the dogs and the kennels and needing shelters and all, we're gonna switch subjects very quickly. But first I want to say I'm so very glad that you are listening this morning. It is WNAU 1470. It's an old East Station, but boy, oh boy, when we're not playing classic rock and roll, it's the Elise Richard Show, and we're very happy to be conservatively speaking and saying exactly what you are thinking. Right now I want to introduce our senator. Senator Kathy Chisholm is sitting here with Bob and I. Welcome to the Elise Richmond Show. Kathy, I'm so glad you could be here. It's been a while.

SPEAKER_04

Well, thank you, Elise, for having me. I'm proud to be back. It has been a while.

SPEAKER_03

We have something very, very important to talk about this morning. Uh all three of us are going to be involved in this conversation, and um it's about data centers. I don't know what you know about data centers, uh, but I was not really aware of all the details until I had a number of people actually call me last week. So you start educating yourself and trying to learn, and it's something that we all need to know about for so many reasons. So we're gonna dig into it today, and I'm gonna just turn the mic right on over to Senator Chisholm and let her go first with what she would like to say about data centers.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Elise. So data centers are a great concern of mine, uh, have been since we passed the AI data centers in the legislature. Um, I did a little bit of research and I'd like to um I'd just like to educate the people in our in our area or in the state of Mississippi, period. They need to educate themselves. I'm gonna give the pros and the cons, and then they can make up their mind, or they can do even more research than what I have done. Exactly. But uh, you know, as I say to anybody before you vote on something like that, any of the supervisors or anybody before you vote on something like this, please do your research and know the pros and the cons. And you know, if there's anything I can do to help any of the supervisors, and it doesn't have to be just in my district, supervisors anywhere throughout the state, if they want the information that that I've worked to get, I'd be glad to share with them.

SPEAKER_03

Well, Kathy, we had said when we were just talking before the show that it is our concern about our area, about Mississippi. That's right. Because Mississippi is what we're concerned with. But this is, I want to just say right off the get-go, this is about America too. This is happening all over America. So even though we're concerned about our area, it's all over America.

SPEAKER_04

That's right. And what happens in California affects Mississippi sooner or later. Sooner or later, right. I mean, check your check the history over the years, and sooner or later it it affects us. But um the data centers power our modern digital lives and drive economic investment. However, they do pose massive resource burdens, weighing the pros and the cons is essential to understanding their rapid expansion. And and this is research that I'm reading to you that that I have done online. And the pros, the pros are good, but the cons are also uh to me, the cons outweigh the pros.

SPEAKER_03

You have to look you have to listen to both sides, and back to what you just said, you have to educate yourself.

SPEAKER_04

That's right. So the pros on this, the economic catalyst, um, they do bring sufficient investment to the regions and expand the local tax base. And that's good. And that's good to bring in more taxes for more people, but not to raise the millage or anything. So then the job creation, they provide hundreds of well-paying construction jobs during the build phase, as well as operational security and maintenance roles. So they do bring a lot of jobs in the beginning, but let's before we get through with all the pros, or when we get through the pros, we're going to read the cons. So remember these pros and then compare the cons with them. Uh, the infrastructure upgrades to support these facilities, developers and utility companies often invest heavily in modernizing local power grids and expanding fiber optic networks. Uh, technology advancement, they serve as a foundational backbone of the internet, cloud computing, banking, and fast-growing AI research. Now let's listen to the cons and listen closely because to me the cons outweigh the pros, and the cons have an effect on every human being and on the world, let alone just the U.S. Um the severe grid strain, and and after I read these cons, I still have a lot more information here that I that I want to go through. Sure.

SPEAKER_03

But I we sure have time. Thankfully. Thankfully, yes.

SPEAKER_04

Um severe grid strain, modern hyperscale data centers can use as much electricity as a small city, which can strain capacity and drive up local utility rates for everyday residents.

SPEAKER_03

And that's important to all of us, driving up utility rates. Keep that one in mind, folks.

SPEAKER_04

So a 70-acre data center, it takes as much power to run that 70-acre data center as it takes to run 80,000 homes.

SPEAKER_02

Wow.

SPEAKER_04

That's a lot.

SPEAKER_02

That's a lot.

SPEAKER_04

The high uh the high water consumption, cooling massive server banks requires millions of gallons of water annually, which can deplete local aquifers and compete with drinking water supplies during droughts.

SPEAKER_03

Drinking water supplies.

SPEAKER_04

Now that's pretty important, folks. That's interesting. Uh how long-term um employment? While they create numerous short-term construction jobs, they employ very few permanent workers once operational, limiting long-term long-term economic stimulus, environmental, and noise pollution. They require immense tracts of land and are associated with persistent industrial-level noise pollution from cooling systems and backup generators. Now, um, let's analyze just a little bit of the air pollution health economic risk from AI data centers. Sure. Got a few things highlighted here that I would like for the public to know about. Certainly. Um we know we have to reduce emissions to avoid climate catastrophe and protect public health. Public health is very important, especially to your younger, your newborns, or your younger, and your elderly. Those are the ones that that probably face the most risk. Um, a lot of conversation on the impacts of AI has centered on energy demand and the country's grid capacity and the potential impact on electricity prices for communities. So I now this is not written in stone. I I can't prove this, but I've been told that TVA is already talking about going up on the electricity. So you know it's gonna affect all the it's already starting. Um, a lot of the conversation on the impacts on the energy demands. Uh I just read that, sorry about that. Um, also the climate impact of carbon emissions, and that's what Bob and I were talking about a few minutes ago, and the water consumption. What I think is getting less attention right now is that it it is not just an energy or climate issue, it's also a public health issue because of the dangers of fine particle matter, and that's what we were mentioning a few minutes ago. Um, the fine particle matter is estimated to drive nearly 90% of the health impacts on air pollution.

SPEAKER_03

Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_04

And um then the next challenge is understanding where the pollution might travel. Air pollution, as we know, doesn't respect any borders, and it it can travel uh far and it can travel far from its source. So once it's in the air, I mean it can travel forever.

SPEAKER_03

And that concerns me only because let's say in Mississippi, we get a handle on this. Instead of building 50 of these things, we only have two or something. But Alabama or Texas or Louisiana or Tennessee has a hundred. That air pollution can come right down on us.

SPEAKER_04

That's right.

SPEAKER_03

Or right over or right up from the ones they're putting in the ocean.

SPEAKER_04

And now that you mentioned like all of these data centers, regardless of how many, uh something that a lot of people don't know, you got to do your research to find out. But China is already building and submerging them into the ocean to keep them cooled off. But that worries me too, because what is it gonna do to the life in the ocean? What is it gonna do to I mean, our resources there? And then also, and and I've got it in in this information right here, you know, uh Elon Musk has a really good idea. If we're gonna have these data centers, he's wanting to put them into outer space because even as high as a plane, uh a jet, a big jet flies, it's like uh minus two hundred and seventy-something degrees below zero, so that could keep them cooled off. Um and that I mean that's a thought. I don't know. I'm not smart enough to do that, but Elon Musk is.

SPEAKER_03

But see, um Senator Chisholm and listeners, this is my point, and this is a point that um I have heard from there because supervisors vote whether these centers go in or not.

SPEAKER_04

So it comes back to local and private in data. And we were actually voting on the one that's going in at Madison. So I guess maybe that answers your question, kind of.

SPEAKER_01

Kinda, sort of. Again, you've got to look at I think the big thing is, you know, and it's something that Trump wants to do. He wants to be the leader of AI, and with AI you need these data centers, and it's going so fast, AI is going so fast, everything's going so fast. No one knows anything of the consequences of doing all this. All they know is the big money that is being circulated around to these politicians and to the local people and things like that to get on board. And at least it's like up in Lake County where we lived, you know, uh in our county, there was a grape became a big deal, so they started planting grape vineyards all over, and grapes need a lot of water. And so all of a sudden in one of the communities a little farther south than us, uh, farms and people were running out of water because the grapes were taking all the water. And in fact, we had a gentleman who ran for supervisor because his water got all sucked up. And do you think anybody cared in the county supervisors or anybody cared that the people weren't their water aquifer was drying up? No. They had to take them to court instead of settling this at the government level because they're incompetent, most governments are, then they had to go to court to settle this.

SPEAKER_04

Well, you know, I I um support Trump 100%. I think we everybody in this room does.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, we do.

SPEAKER_04

And um I support him on wanting the data centers, but we've got to do the research. We need to we need to decide where the data centers need to be put, if they need to be in outer space, if they need to be in the ocean. You know, I'm not so sure they need to be here with us because of the research that I have done, because it's gonna bring health problems, it's gonna bring water problems, it's gonna bring electrical problems. I mean, we got a lot of problems here. And and I did this research here in in Northern Virginia and DC area, the metropolitan DC. Uh, it's a highly populated area. And uh it's estimated that between 53 million and 99 million in annual health damages from associated air pollution, among the largest uh health damage estimates produced for a single facility. That's just one facility.

SPEAKER_03

And that's everybody who has sinus problems and any kind of asthma problems, pulmonary problems.

SPEAKER_04

Well, when you have particles in the air, I mean you can end up with cancer, you can end up with one.

SPEAKER_03

That's right. You it goes on and on and on, and there's not enough research to prove this. Uh, I want to know where are all of those pink-haired hippies that are out uh messing around because the reflection pool got totally distorted, and I'm so furious about that uh uh with those people, and I hope they do get 10 years.

SPEAKER_01

They're singing songs.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, where are those people out there protesting algae? Algae can't hear you, or you know, this is ridiculous, but yeah. Uh they've got all that marijuana they're smoking, and we all know about that.

SPEAKER_01

Well, that's what the government did. They let them all smoke the marijuana, so they'd be no problem.

SPEAKER_03

You know, so they'd all sit quiet and just put on crazy outfits, dye their hair pink, green, and purple, and go out and scream about something that is nonsensical, like algae. Who are the people that have got the time to do that? Now we're making kind of fun of it a little bit here, but bottom line, it is bottom line, marijuana is still illegal federally, but it is legal.

SPEAKER_04

The states have overridden the marijuana in certain states, and unfortunately, we did. Yeah, well, it's money.

SPEAKER_03

It's money. Those people have those growers and all those folks, they want to sell that stuff and they want it out there and they don't care what it does to anybody.

SPEAKER_04

Well, uh this next um article that I'm gonna read, the research that I've done, it's gonna be really interesting, I would think, for the people in Mississippi because it it's another they classify the DeSota County Data Center as another high profile case. Okay. And it says in DeSota County, Mississippi, near Memphis, which includes 41 gas turbines, and they're really upset about that in that area, intended to power AI's Colossius two, uh, two, Colossius, I I'm not familiar with that, two data center, but that's the name of it, supposedly. We've projected an increase in regional air pollution and tens of millions of dollars in estimated annual health damage.

SPEAKER_03

Where are all those hippies that used to go protest pollution and wanted air control? Where's Al Gore when you need it?

SPEAKER_01

At least when you get those turbines going, okay, and a lot of times they call them temporary turbines because they're gonna build power plants, nuclear, out in our space, or something like that. There's no regulations on them. But they're put in and you go ahead and you look at them, and you really don't see something nothing coming out of the stack. You know how you used to see pollution, you used to see big white clouds of smoke and big big big flames coming out and everything else. But you're not gonna see it with this. No, you're not gonna see it with this because it's natural gas. But if you take, and I've seen a lot of videos where they take the drones up and they take ultraviolet infrared cameras and take pictures of it, there's like flames coming out of this about twenty feet high. But because it's natural gas, you don't see those flames, and they're just putting so much pollution and particles in the air, they're probably right now breaking the law on emissions, but they can't prove it. You can't prove it. It's getting it's because there's no regulation on it. No regulation against it. Now look at the car. Now the car was a big pollutant back in the 60s and the 70s. Well, they passed laws, and now cars are probably ninety eight point five percent free of any type of pollution.

SPEAKER_04

You know, they still have the catalytic converters on them. Yeah, well, you know, in the area of DeSoto County, they in the research they proved that uh they already carry a substantial amount of air pollution burden. I mean, that's in the research.

SPEAKER_01

So now that that is that's not the one in South Haven, though, is it? Is South Haven County?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, DeSoto County, South Haven. Yeah, that's the one that's right up there.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. And then the question was asked um during this research do you see ways to reconcile these AI data centers, massive need for energy with the health and economic costs you're finding in your analysis? Well, we can't solve a problem we haven't measured, which is what we're talking about. We don't know. Uh right now, permitting decisions for data centers are being made without any clear accounting of their public health cost. And that gap means health damages are systematically left out of these important decisions, and that's what you just got to explain.

SPEAKER_01

There are a lot, you know, when you go through for permitting and things like that, you have negative declarations. All the negatives that the um what you're trying to go ahead and permit is brought forward, and then you have to go ahead and find ways to get around them so it doesn't affect the public. I don't believe they're doing any environmental negative docs on any of these plants going on. And it's going to be very interesting why these county uh planning commissions are allowing these to go forward with no.

SPEAKER_04

Well, they're allowing it because of the money. But you know, the money.

SPEAKER_01

But there's laws against it. There should be regulations against it, at least in California. Now, maybe Minnes Mississippi is a little bit more backwards and they don't have that, but in California they did.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, this California boy. Uh probably everybody who is a loyal Mississippi resident, born and raised, has just now shut off the radio. Bob.

SPEAKER_01

Hey, it's the truth, Elise.

SPEAKER_04

Well, let's go on on a I want to give you a little bit more overview. The AI data centers use millions of gallons of water daily, uh, running thousands of high uh density AI graphics processing units, generates extreme heat to prove uh to prevent hardware damage and maintain optimal processing speeds. Facilities rely on evaporative cooling towers where water absorbs heat and evaporates into the atmosphere, and that's going to cause a huge problem right there. Direct cooling facilities use water and wet cooling towers because evaporation is the most energy efficient way to cool massive server rooms, and this is uh one reason you know that China is dropping these data centers into the ocean, and the reason that um Elon Musk, who's an intelligent guy, is wanting to put them into uh space.

SPEAKER_03

I think that he probably sees what the definite problems are in the future. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

While high uh highly effective, this process continuously consumes clean water that is lost as vapor. So we're losing our water, it's going up as vapor. And that that could be a real issue here because you know, every year we have a drought like over in the summer, so it could be a huge issue. The power generation generating the massive amounts of electricity needed run AI models requires power plants to use water for steam and cooling. This means the data center's water footprint includes indirect consumption from off-site energy grids. We already have a lot of power issues, maybe not here in Union County. And I give a shout out to our electrical, our power company because they they've just been awesome.

SPEAKER_03

And the power company in Ponot County.

SPEAKER_04

In Pontock, they have been awesome. But now when you get to uh Marshall County, they have issues up there and they don't have the power to supply to the people and they're always out of power. The least wind that comes through, you know, creates a problem, the power's down. So what's gonna happen to these plants when when they start taking even more of the power? Um hardware manufacturing, the specialized uh semiconductor chips used in AI serves require ultra pure water during manufacturing for etching, cleaning, and rinsing were polluting so badly that their cows out uh that were drinking in the creek, they were dumping all of their um um waste on their land that backed up to their land, and the cows were being born all deformed, and they finally started researching it was PGE.

SPEAKER_03

And that's something that we saw with our own eyes with these friends. They they picked up cow uh PG and E had to move them all the way to Missouri, and they moved their whole operation and herds of cows, Gelvy cows, they were special cows, special cows, moved to Missouri where they st our friends still live, and bottom line. Uh I saw that with my own eyes, what pollution can do.

SPEAKER_04

Well, in February of this year, um these research programs, the research, can you hear me now? Okay. Um they the it recently estimates a project that by 2028, that's next year, that's six months off. Um all AI related data centers in the U.S. could require up to 32 billion gallons of water annually. Oh my lands. That's a lot. That is a lot.

SPEAKER_03

By 2028. Six months. A year and six months.

SPEAKER_04

No, six months. Uh yeah, a year and six months. Year and six months. Year and six months. By 2028, yes. Exactly. I mean, that's unreal. And to avoid the constant low frequency humming from cooling fans and backup generators, you um should generally live three to six miles from a large data center. Now, three to six miles from one of those things, that's a long ways to keep you from hearing.

SPEAKER_03

Well, it totally is. And how what about all the farms that are blocked right up against the land that they're gonna donate or buy and build these centers on? Well, what do you do if you're there already and you've been there generations?

SPEAKER_04

And then if you have a $1.5 million house that's closed, you just lost the value of your house. I mean, it's gonna bring down the value of the properties around it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, who's gonna buy that with all that? You know, a continuous noise drives people crazy. Absolutely. And people, I hear people all the time. In fact, this has just happened.

SPEAKER_01

Do I drive you crazy, Elise? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

I'm a witness. Jesus synergitism is a witness, yes, with his constant TV. And uh it's so loud that I'm like, oh my gosh, our our dogs are gonna go deaf. Um, you absolutely can be nuts from constant noise. Yeah. It's a fact, and it drives all the birds away.

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

There will be no birds. If you like migration of birds and watching birds and geese and that's one of the complaints in DeSota County, the birds are gone in that area. Really?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. If you want migration of geese, and I happen to really love geese coming down from Mississippi and going on down on their migration and hummingbirds and all of the birds that we love to see, forget it. They're gone. That's it. They won't deal with, oh my lands, I just looked at the clock. We're just going on about data centers. We need to take another quick break. But we're going to come right back continuing this conversation because our senator is prepared and she has much more to say. So stay with us if you're interested in more information about data. This is something that just kind of got uh brought to my attention. I feel like I don't know enough to really intelligently talk about it. That's why I'm so into listening to Kathy and all of the research that she has done on this. And believe me, folks, we're gonna be researching more and we're gonna be coming back with much, much more information on this too. But Kathy, you had some a few things you wanted to say uh to kind of finish up our last uh segment discussion.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I have some biblical things that I want to talk about. But before I say that, before I get into that, I want to say that on the data centers that that we voted on, the it's actually the Amazon, the AI data center, th this is just my thoughts, and this is what's in the bill.

SPEAKER_03

Well, this is everybody's this is an editorial show. This is everybody's opinions.

SPEAKER_04

Well, in the bill, we give them 10 years tax incentive. I don't agree with that at all. We don't give our local mom and pops any tax incentives, none at all. And then on top of that, uh the research that I did, they the Amazon does 70% of their business with China on the research.

SPEAKER_03

70% of their business with China. Did you all hear that?

SPEAKER_04

So why are we giving them all of these incentives? And there's a lot of money involved, but I w I don't want to mention exactly what money until we do go back and and research the bill because I might quote something wrong without doing the research again on the bill, even though I got to look at the bill for maybe five minutes before I voted on it, but I voted no.

SPEAKER_03

Um I would have voted no just because I didn't have time to read it.

SPEAKER_04

Five minutes. Not long, not long at all.

SPEAKER_01

That's the problem with government, especially here in Mississippi, giving five minutes to vote on something that's big.

SPEAKER_04

We were called for a special session for this, and we were called the day before, and I asked for a copy of the bill, and I I was told that I couldn't have it. And then the next Oh really? Oh, yeah. And then the next day I go in and I sit at my seat, and they give us the cop I mean, it's like hundreds of pages. And um, they give us a copy, and you don't have time to look through three or four hundred.

SPEAKER_01

And all those other senators voted yes. You're the only one who voted no.

SPEAKER_04

I'm the only one that voted no, but now I can't answer for them. I'm just answering.

SPEAKER_01

They only had five minutes to read it, too. That's right. Okay, well, see, let me explain one thing. Seven out of ten Americans are against data centers. You are voting with the people. If they ever try to give you any problem with this in the future, all you others who voted yes on it, seven out of ten Mississippi are against data centers. Think about that. What you're doing.

SPEAKER_04

My biblical values on it, you know. Of course, I pray about my bills and and I've said from the very beginning, God sent me to Jackson. I didn't go on my own. I didn't go on my educational benefits, I didn't go on uh popularity, I didn't go for many, many reasons on my own. God sent me there. That's the only reason that I'm in Jackson. But I would like to, I did a little bit of research on on the biblical values of it too, because you know that's more important to me than all the political values that you can put out there. But the Bible does not directly mention artificial intelligence as it was written long before modern technology existed. However, theologians and faith leaders emphasize that foundational biblical principles provide a clear framework for navigating AI, human creativity as a gift, the ability to build and innovate stems uh from creation mandate, Genesis 128, where God calls humanity to uh cultivate and steward the earth in this light, AI is seen as a tool reflecting human creativity, which is not good. Um, the image of God. The Bible teaches that humans are made in God's image. We know that. Yes, we're taught that in Genesis. Um, meaning we have a moral conscience, the capacity for relationships, and an intern eternal soul. We we know we have an eternal soul attributes to the AI lacks, the AI lacks those values those things, those things. That's right. Uh the trap of idolatry, scripture cause cautions against um exalting our own creations over God. Isaiah 40. Writ uh when AI is used to seek godlike power or becomes the primary source of wisdom and truth, it risks becoming an idol. Absolutely so true. Uh stewardship and ethics, believers are called to use tools that honor God, protect human dignity, and serve the common good. This means AI should never be used to exploit, deceive, or diminish human worth. Wisdom over knowledge. The Bible often differentiates between knowledge, which AI can process quickly, and wisdom, which comes from God. And not from AI. That's right. Users are encouraged to seek God for wisdom to use technology responsibly. People are increasingly saying no to data centers. We've seen that here in this area, especially massive AI facilities because the cost to local communities far outweigh the benefits, and they do so far. These massive tech hubs consume vast amounts of local resources while providing very few permanent jobs. One research that I did said 20 permanent jobs after all of the construction and everything, and another said 20 to 50, and one said 50. So strained power grids and higher bills. Data centers demand incredible amounts of electricity nationwide. And we talked about this being nationwide. This strain on power grids has been directly linked to skyrocketing energy prices for everyday households. That is us. Uh, we're the everyday households. We are uh water usage and depletion facilities require millions of gallons of water for cooling systems in areas experiencing water scarcity, scarcity. This creates major concerns for local municipality supplies and agriculture. Don't forget the agriculture because I mean we Are you going to water your crops when there's a drought and not any rain?

SPEAKER_03

How are you gonna water your crops?

SPEAKER_04

Remember the wine uh in the Greeks up in Lake County? That's right. Noise and air pollution, massive cooling fans can cause continuous, unbearable noise pollution, often compared to the sound of a lawnmower running constantly right next door. And last but not least, um, orbital data centers. Musk predicts that within a few years space will become the most economically compelling location to run AI compute. Uh he envisions launching up to one million AI satellites into low Earth orbit to handle hyperscale AI workloads. And it and China, you know, we talked about is already submerging these data centers into the ocean to cool it off. But then I worry about what's happening to your the ocean has its own environmental balance. Yes.

SPEAKER_03

And um for everything that's there.

SPEAKER_01

Let's throw some windmills out there.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, let's kill the birds with the windmills. That's another whole thing. And then we haven't even mentioned solar energy here. That they're saying, oh, let's put solar energy to it.

SPEAKER_01

That's one of the things they're saying that they're gonna go ahead and use solar and wind at these generations, which is the most expensive electricity you can have. Which is crazy.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, but people say it's the cheapest.

SPEAKER_01

Oh no, it's not in in in the next five years, half of the energy, the new energy that they're gonna create is going to AI. Right. Half of the new energy in the next five years is going to AI. Without AI, we'd have a lot less problems. And it creates this massive data centers, they create their own weather locally around them because they're so hot. And that heat goes up in the atmosphere, and you can see the footprint from outer space of the heat generated, just like a lot of big cities generate their own climate. Atlanta is one of them that generates its own climate because it's so much industry and hotness and everything going on.

SPEAKER_03

So, folks, we have the pros and the cons, just to kind of summarize a little bit here before we're out of time. Um I'm looking at going over real quick and just spotting it with your permission to use your information here on pros and cons, because I think it's important that we have these things in our head. So let's look at the pros. The economic catalyst, bringing significant investment to the regions, expanding the local tax base. And we've already talked about how that you know can happen, but who benefits from that? That's that's the the whole thing. If all of the supervisors and the um aldermen think they're gonna get all this money in the coffers for the county, I don't see it.

SPEAKER_01

You know, my question now there's gonna be a data center, it's being built now, or is it planned in Pontiac County?

SPEAKER_04

That's to my understanding, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It's being planned. So all you people out there in Pontiau County and around counties, because it's gonna affect you. You need to start to get together and plan your resistance at county meetings of why it needs to be elsewhere. Exactly. Because it's gonna affect Pontiauk County and it's gonna affect you, your homes, your your families, your cattle, your cattle, your livelihood. The power of the people can overrun the money. A lot of people say the money going to these politicians in their coffers is too much for them not to vote no. It's not true. Because again, we're gonna make sure that all of these in Pontiac County Supervisors, you better start watching because we're gonna go back and check your last couple of runs for county supervisors to see how much you spent. And if you Pass this and it starts to be built, we're gonna be looking how much you spend on the next time. Because if you pass this and it's built, you're gonna have people coming after you to make sure you're never a county supervisor again. And so we're gonna be watching. And anybody who wants to go ahead and get involved, contact the Lease Richmond show and we'll help direct you on how this happens. Because we did this in California and we're very successful.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, we are uh we're planning, we're just getting started to think about what we're gonna do exactly. But there are a lot of people in in counties that are very, very concerned about this at this point. They want the truth, they want to know what's really happening, whose pockets are being filled here or not. That might be uh just totally off base to say that.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, come on, Elise, you know it's not off base.

SPEAKER_03

I am being diplomatic here.

SPEAKER_04

And this is Biblically, you know, God tells us the love of money is root of all evil, and this is short-term money. There we we need to look at the long-term money Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

If your grandkids can't breathe, then what are you doing with the money? You might be able to give them a big legacy and a whole bunch of um investment funds and buy a lot of stock for them. But if the kids can't breathe, they don't have any water to drink, hey, what's going on there?

SPEAKER_01

And the reason they have to build these inside infrastructure in communities is because that's where the infrastructure is. They can't go out into the desert. Or not into the desert, but just out where there's really nothing. They need a structure, and there's only a certain amount of communities that have the structure and they have to build close to them, and that affects the whole community.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely, the whole commit community and everything around. So the pros, the economic catalysts that I j uh Kathy uh Sinergishm just said, job creation that we already said in the beginning, yes, but after it becomes an operational place, there's only about 20 to 50 people. Infrastructure upgrades, you have to support these facilities with utility companies and often invest heavily in modernizing local power grids and expanding the fiber optic networks, and then the technological advancement. They serve as fundamental backbone of the internet, uh, cloud computing, banking, and fast-growing AI research. So those are the pros. And there are many people that believe that is so necessary, and many people believe that's here already, and so there's nothing you can do about it. I do not believe that's true. The cons are severe. Severe grid uh strain, high water consumption, low long-term employment, environmental and noise pollution. And think about a world with no birds and the plants are all burned out and there's no water to do anything with. That kind of reminds me of the worst sci-fi movies I saw in the 60s. And we're creating that. We, the kids in the 60s, are creating that who were into clean air and clean water and um all of the things that we believed in to clean up those streams and those rivers. This is an absolute congruent thing.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you also look at uh why they go ahead and they try to sneak these things through. Yeah, it's all been snuck in. You know, passed for millions of dollars of things for Amazon and why communities are going. I didn't know what was being built, I didn't know there was any any meetings, planning commissioners, city council or uh uh county meetings on this. You know, people all of a sudden just say, What is that? Oh, it's too late by then. Absolutely organize, organize, organize.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, folks, our show is at the end. We have run out of time, but believe me, this is a subject that we will be talking about frequently, and we will be bringing Senator Kathy Chisholm and other uh folks that want to come on the show to discuss this. When we get things planned to actually uh educate everyone in a forum type situation, we will be letting you know that too. I always close my uh show by saying things like this if you do what you've always done, which is stick your head in the sand, you will get what you've always gotten, which is absolutely nothing. So let's get on, data centers. Let's educate ourselves. Let's demand that those supervisors and those ordermen know what they're talking about. If they're just getting the money and passing it and going on their merry way, they maybe don't even know how to explain a data center any more than I do. So they need, and they're the ones in charge. So jump out there, do something new. I thank you all for listening. I thank all of you for being patient concerning all this because it's a lot of information. And next week we're gonna have fun. Next week we're having all the people from Union County and Pontaw County that are planning our Happy Birthday 250 Years to America events for Fourth of July. So come back next week on Tuesday at 11 o'clock. You never know what you're gonna hear. God bless all of you and God bless our America.

SPEAKER_00

You've been listening to the Elise Richmond Show right here on WNAU. Be sure and tune in again next Tuesday at 11 for the Elise Richmond Show.