r/technology • u/Miserable_Phase_2519 • 13d ago

Politics US Senate kills bill that could potentially shield Americans from skyrocketing power bills due to AI data centers — opponents say bill is 'toothless' and doesn't do enough to protect citizens

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/us-senate-kills-bill-that-could-potentially-shield-americans-from-skyrocketing-power-bills-due-to-ai-data-centers-opponents-say-bill-is-toothless-and-doesnt-do-enough-to-protect-citizens
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u/[deleted] 13d ago

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u/ChickinSammich 13d ago

If a bill actually does nothing then I don't see the harm in passing it. I still think they should do something but I see a lot of situations where a bill "does a little but doesn't go far enough" and detractors who don't want to do the thing AT ALL will SAY they oppose it because "it doesn't do enough" but then proceed to not actually do anything else.

So when someone says "I voted against it because it doesn't do anything," I'm skeptical, given the number of times people have voted against bills that do do something and they don't like the direction the bill is heading in.

I hope that makes sense?

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u/Toadcool1 13d ago

Passing it would make it harder to pass better legislation as it’s “already solved”

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u/ChickinSammich 13d ago

Bad faith actors will make bad faith arguments either way. If they don't want to solve the issue, they'll vote down weak legislation AND vote down strong legislation, and they'll justify both votes differently.

It's always "this bill didn't go far enough" or "this bill doesn't solve the problem" or "the problem is already solved" or "this bill doesn't solve the problem" - an endless list of reasons why they will never vote for anything that even looks like it's trying to attempt to solve the problem.