一位现代淘金者向乡村帝国许诺数千个就业岗位和数百万美元税收收入——但他的计划却引发了激烈的抵抗浪潮。
A modern-day prospector promised rural Imperial thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue – but his plan has set off a firestorm of resistance Sebastian Rucci zoomed in on a map in late 2024, looking closely at a large block of brown earth.
塞巴斯蒂安·鲁奇在2024年底放大了一张地图，仔细审视了一大块褐色土地。这块被广阔苜蓿田和宁静的沙漠郊区夹在中间的荒凉地块正是他一直在寻找的——实现他建造加州最大人工智能数据中心梦想的完美场所。
The barren plot sandwiched between sprawling alfalfa fields and sleepy desert suburbs was exactly what he’d been searching for – the perfect place to realize his dream of building the largest artificial intelligence datacenter in California.
这片尘土飞扬的地区并非显而易见的选址。它位于索诺兰沙漠，就在墨西哥边境以北，那里的气温经常升至100华氏度（37.8摄氏度）以上。水资源在这片曾经繁荣的农业地区极度匮乏，该地区的供水依赖于陷入困境的科罗拉多河。此外，还有人口2.2万的帝国城市需要争取支持。随着有争议的数据中心项目在美国各地兴起，居民自然对一个耗能巨大的新邻居持怀疑态度。
The dusty expanse wasn’t an obvious location. It was in the Sonoran desert, just north of the Mexican border, where temperatures regularly rose past 100F (37.8C). Water was scarce in the once-booming agricultural area, which gets its supply from the beleaguered Colorado River. And then, there was the city of Imperial – population 22,000 – to win over. As controversial datacenter projects have sprung up across the US, residents were naturally skeptical of a new, energy-guzzling neighbor.
