In Southwest Memphis, residents of a historically Black neighborhood now live in the shadow of one of the largest computers ever built. Elon Musk's xAI has erected a sprawling supercomputing campus there — anchored by data centers it calls "Colossus" and "Colossus II" — and the community's response has been anything but grateful. People who have spent generations fighting to keep their air clean and their bills affordable see a familiar pattern: an industrial behemoth dropped in their midst, that the project’s environmental and power costs will ultimately be borne by their community.

The Pacific Northwest will need a massive buildout of new energy infrastructure over the next six years to meet rising electricity demand, according to a draft regional power plan released Thursday.  Implementing the plan will cost the Pacific Northwest approximately $2.3 billion. And the rate of building will need to quicken to make it happen […]