Irish Eyes Are Smiling

These companies have billions of dollars, but they come into small, rural communities in arid country, convince local governments to give them tax statements and tax breaks, then require at least 1 million gallons of fresh water for their cooling systems. They knew they were coming to water-limited/deficient areas before the process ever started, just like they knew their water needs were far, FAR in excess of what is available in drought-prone country. Then they bring in 5-10,000 people to work on getting the site up and running, with their water needs and the waste water disposal problems that number of people (often in excess of the population of the entire county where they want to place their facility) imposes on tiny communities. And of course, the power needs for their sites during and after construction exceed the needs and capacity of several entire counties, so vast solar farms, wind farms, generation and gathering plants, and transmission lines soon cover the landscape which is almost a agricultural land. These often lead to eminent domain proceedings.

These companies throw vast sums of money at these communities and local governments, both of which are still best cash-strapped, and often economically depressed. So it looks attractive.