I would be interested to know how the power outages due to the storm have negatively affected air pollution and the smog problem in the area. Due to generators burning huge amounts of diesel, generators which undoubtedly have no meaningful air pollution control to speak of.
Well, that isn't really that true. Many machine are tier 2 compliant, and lots of new ones are getting catalytic converters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/technology/data-centers-waste-vast- amounts-of-energy-belying-industry-image.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Well, if someone doesn't install something properly or get the proper permit, they should be fined.
"Most data centers, by design, consume vast amounts of energy in an incongruously wasteful manner, interviews and documents show. Online companies typically run their facilities at maximum capacity around the clock, whatever the demand. As a result, data centers can waste 90 percent or more of the electricity they pull off the grid, The Times found.
It is more like 99%, converted to heat. That has been the same for 30 years.
To guard against a power failure, they further rely on banks of generators that emit diesel exhaust. The pollution from data centers has increasingly been cited by the authorities for violating clean air regulations, documents show. In Silicon Valley, many data centers appear on the state government’s Toxic Air Contaminant Inventory, a roster of the area’s top stationary diesel polluters."
What is your actual question? I'd submit the following to you - for instance, one of our facilities consumed about 600 gallons last week over a 24 hour period. I am located adjacent to an interstate, which has much dirtier vehicles and trucks driving by every second of every day forever. If a diesel truck gets 8 mpg (and that is being really nice), then that is the equivalent of 4,800 trucks passing my place on a one mile stretch of highway. This isn't an argument of whether or not DC's are clean or not, it's a question of what the bigger problem is.