The $3.2 billion AI data center campus at Lake Mariner in New York reveals a structure in which responsibility is distributed among numerous companies. TeraWulf operates the facility at a former coal mine and conducts its operations on land it leases from a company owned by its CEO. The facility will be run by Fluidstack, which is headquartered in the UK; Google holds warrants that would allow it to acquire a 14% stake in the future and guarantees Fluidstack’s lease payments. Anthropic is among the companies that will use the facility’s computing capacity.
No one was injured in a fire at the facility, but the Barker Fire Department encountered dense black smoke from unidentified chemicals. Fire Chief Steve Matisz said he was not convinced by the claim that the safety data sheets had been destroyed in the fire. TeraWulf said it was responsible for operational safety and emergency preparedness, and announced that it had installed Knox boxes, additional hydrants and safety data sheet bags. Matisz, however, said in mid-August that the hydrants were still dry and that he had not witnessed any work. Two months after the fire, the water supply problem remained unresolved while construction continued.
According to the company’s 2024 planning presentation, the facility will provide 35-40 jobs and use 500 megawatts of power once it reaches full capacity. These figures fall short of the 165 permanent jobs and $85 million in capital investment promised in 2019. NYPA reviews the commitments every year. Governor Kathy Hochul also said that data centers do not create long-term employment despite their enormous energy needs.
According to experts, the grid costs of large data centers operating 24 hours a day can be passed on to all consumers through backup power plants and capacity constraints. In February 2026, Anthropic pledged to cover 100% of the electricity price increases caused by data centers and the costs of grid infrastructure; however, this commitment does not cover issues such as noise and clean energy.
TeraWulf’s use of the phrase “95% zero-carbon” for Lake Mariner later shifted to “low- and zero-carbon”; in a 2025 disclosure, the rate was given as 91%. The company says that the electricity cannot be tied to a specific source and that it does not purchase renewable energy certificates. It remains unclear whether Google’s real-time clean energy standard is being met at the facility.
Somerset residents complain about constant noise, while local officials complain about the company’s weak accountability to the community. Three months later, the New York legislature’s comprehensive bill regulating data centers still has not been signed. Hochul’s moratorium in July does not cover Lake Mariner because the facility had obtained its permits earlier.
Why it matters
The Lake Mariner example raises the question of how accountability can be tracked in AI infrastructure structures where land, operations, financing and capacity utilization are distributed among different actors, particularly in matters of safety and emergencies. The gap between the burden placed on local governments in terms of the grid, water and fire preparedness and the limited promise of employment opens up a debate over who benefits economically from the project. Uncertainties over the energy source and clean energy standard also raise the question of how low-carbon claims can be assessed independently. As complaints about noise and accountability continue, the fact that comprehensive regulation has not yet entered into force leaves open the question of which rules will govern oversight of similar projects and at what stage it will be applied.
Term: grid
The electricity grid is the transmission and distribution network that connects power generation facilities to consumers; supply and demand must be balanced instantaneously.