re: Why does the Naacp think it should get involved in a SpaceX data center drama?

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What jobs?

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Data center jobs (which on an acre by acre basis isn't great - these things aren't jobs dense) + the power station jobs that usually go with them (they aren't always immediately local though, but they are lucrative and this helps the providers justify modernization and expansion). 3-5 of those turbines usually means 50+ jobs, usually $40-$50/hour. Maybe not a big deal in Memphis, but in a smaller town like Zachary, New Roads, etc. - that's a real number.

Most importantly for locals is the local tax revenue feeding police, fire, water/sewery, schools, etc. if the districts gave the standard 80/20 ITEP instead of the crazy 90+%. Once again, a drop in the bucket for Shelby County, TN. But an outlying county or small parish in south Louisiana - that can be real revenue for local governments that can result in teacher salaries, pavement for roads, and better fire or police protection.

That said - data centers aren't my ideal tenent for our country's limited greenfield industrial sites. I'd prefer a car plant or some kind of manufacturing going in my area over a data center. I really like the Hyundai steel mill that Donaldsonville is getting.

I'm not necessarily against the power generation hardware or tax revenue that comes with the data centers. Really not even against the data center itself so long as they aren't jerry rigging temporary power as a permanent solution. If they need a fence line power station, then get in line and build a real turbine the way SpaceX is trying to do. Or cooperate with the local provider and help get new, permanent power stations online the way Meta is trying to do with Entergy Louisiana.

Problem here with data centers, IMO, is the electrons and the lead time for those gas turbines right now. The data centers are coming online faster than the new power plants can be constructed to support them.

This is one of the reasons I'm skeptical about Anthropic's valuation. It's going to need a fricking defense authorization act to stand up the amount of power stations to supply the data centers they will need for the compute they are projecting by 2030. They may be able to produce the semiconductors and the processes now, but that just made the next kink in the chain the energy production and turbine construction.