$NBIS Update: Pennsylvania Gigafactory Phase III zoning is OFFICIALLY APPROVED‼️ I called again and managed to get a hold of the Butler Township Supervisor Chairman Mr. Kessler. We had a nice chat, and he confirmed tonight's ordinances passed 2 to 1. Conversation notes 👇 1⃣ Selection Bias Mr. Kessler told me that out of Butler Township’s ~5,000 residents, only 12 people showed up to tonight’s meeting. Vineland has ~60,000 residents. Maybe 100 showed up to protest at the site amendment hearing. Noise ≠ consensus. The loudest voices are almost never representative of the broader community. Most residents are indifferent, supportive, or just not sufficiently opposed to bother showing up. 2⃣ Butler Township WANTS This Datacenter Kessler told me Pennsylvania is “screwy” right now (with Shapiro), but his view is that datacenters are coming regardless. Eventually, municipalities across the state will be asked to accommodate them. Butler Township decided to get ahead of that. Two years ago, the township passed an ordinance designating where datacenters could be built, deliberately selecting an area along I-81 with substantial separation from nearby residents. Rather than wait for the state to come in and say, “We’re putting a datacenter here,” Butler wanted to already be able to say: “We have a spot.” 3⃣ Noise Study Before the vote, Butler Township commissioned an independent noise study to model the datacenter under a range of operating conditions. Kessler said the analysis incorporated roughly 15 years of local temperature data, because the cooling equipment becomes louder as temperatures rise. He noted that temperatures high enough to push the facility toward its loudest operating conditions occurred only three times over that 15-year period. The study modeled the facility at or near full cooling load during extreme heat, including temperatures approaching the local historical high of roughly 101.7°F. It also modeled how noise attenuates with distance from the site. Kessler said the nearest property owner is approximately 3,500 feet away, and cited modeled levels falling to roughly 52 dBA during daytime, and into the mid-20 dBA range at night farther from the facility. The study gave the board enough comfort to tighten the allowable noise limit from 75 dBA to 65 dBA.