Avista (AVA) just paused a 500-megawatt (MW) data center memorandum of understanding in Spokane County after 5,000+ community complaints, a Spokane City Council moratorium proposal, and concerns about ratepayer costs and the Spokane River. The rumored site is the former Kaiser Aluminum smelter in Mead, actively marketed for data center use with 240MW of Avista power already on site. An energized brownfield, blocked anyway. Worth zooming out on what this region is: Eastern Washington runs on cheap Columbia River hydro. By 1950, half of all US aluminum output came from here. Kaiser's Mead smelter and Trentwood rolling mill employed 2,000+ workers and supplied Boeing with aerospace sheet. The Mead smelter closed in 2000 after a brutal 2-year lockout. Kaiser's waste practices left a cyanide
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