It’s out in the middle of friggen nowhere and very few souls live there. The uber lefty environmentalists are making a big deal out of diesel fumes from running backup generators for a few hours during a temporary power outage. Get real.

Get Real? Got Milk?
How 'bout Got Comprehension?

"For example, Yahoo’s Quincy data center, which expanded around the same time, ran its generators just 65 hours in 2010, state records show. Microsoft’s generators operated for a combined total of 3,615 hours that year, the records show."

Yahoo's 65 hrs/year = about 2.5 hrs testing every two weeks. Normal usage.

M$FT's 3,615 hrs/year = about 139 hrs every two weeks. Or about 10 hrs a day, for 365 days of that year. Since they said it mainly was for part of the year, some days or weeks they may have run 7/24. Abnormal usage for any data center anywhere. And smelly and noisy.

Wonder if all of this is going on in Hood River, The Dalles and Prineville?

Decent story in the Oregonian recently on the power these data centers use and the huge tax breaks they get in Oregon all for very few jobs. Enterprise zones and no sales tax are a huge draw for these companies to come to Oregon. Consultant said if California offered free power they would still locate in Oregon for the tax breaks here.

I'll bet that practically all of these eco-weenies rely upon their iPhones, Netflix accounts, Google maps, Yelp, and all of the other modern conveniences that necessitate newer and larger datacenters. Rank hypocrisy.

Rural towns in Washington are notorious for being full of raving eco-weenies. Can't they just call off school when the job creators need to foul the air? Crazy.

Mr. Benton the very few souls that live there have a problem with what is going on and so should you. The rural counties produce all of your food, resources and power. Keeping them clean and healthy is important.

What about the generators at the Con-Way Data Center in NW Portland?

It is attached to a LEED Silver certified building (uses the servers to heat the building, etc.)

Saw a news item about the BBQ-ing in Cali causing quite a bit of air pollution. How scary is that?

It's not green if you don't pollute where you use whatever that pollutes.

If, you're like Portland with it's great electric powered light rail/streetcar system (that pollutes Boardman), or you recycle (but all your garbage ends up in Arlington and your compost ends up in North Plains), or you have pristine water sources (but your raw sewage is dumped into Washington County's Garden Home neighborhood and into Fanno Creek through Tigard) - you're eco-friendly.

I'm sure that the data center could get by on less backup generator use. Say maybe the leftie greenies cut back their web surfing ...
Shoot, MS could even write a script to deny those who object access to the servers.