Oregon
Are Meta, Google, and Amazon the Monsters of Oregon’s Deep Blue Sea? | Essay
In 2020, Edge Cable Holdings, a Facebook subsidiary, was burying a new fiber-optic cable into the seabed near Tierra Del Mar, Oregon. Working beneath a rugged mixture of basalt rock mounds, unconsolidated sands, and sandstone bedrock, the company’s drilling operation went awry. Stalled out, they ditched their metal pipes, drilling fluids, and other construction materials in the ocean: Out of sight, out of mind.
When Oregon’s Department of State Lands learned of the abandonment, they ordered Edge Cable Holdings and Facebook (now Meta) to pay a fine. But the damage was done. Two sinkholes formed along the installation path and most of the materials will remain lodged in the seafloor forever. These items, and thousands of gallons of drilling fluid, pose an ongoing risk to the surrounding seafloor ecosystem. Despite public outrage, the company returned to complete the cable in 2021, with debris from the first attempt still lodged in the seabed.
The cable was not the first to slither into Oregon’s stretch of the Pacific Ocean, and it’s by no means the last. Big technology companies including Amazon, China Mobile, and Google are flocking to Oregon’s coastline to land transpacific fiber-optic cables. Most recently in August 2023, the Department of State Lands approved a 9,500-mile fiber-optic cable connecting Singapore, Guam, and the United States.
What has transformed Oregon into an undersea cable hotspot—and how is the installation process affecting a vibrant ocean ecosystem? The explanation resides in tax breaks, swift permitting processes, cheap energy, vast amounts of open land for data centers, and a historical carelessness for the environment shared by the state and tech companies alike.
Fiber-optic cables transmit data with pulses of light through thin glass fibers. In 2022, they provided over 98 percent of the world’s internet services and international phone calls. There are more than 745,000 miles of submarine fiber-optic cables in operation around the world—that’s enough cable to wrap around the Earth’s equator more than 29 times. It’s the work of cables, not satellites, that connect us on a global scale.
Although undersea cables seem to be torn from the pages of a futuristic science fiction novel, they aren’t a new technology. The first functional telegraph cables crossed the Atlantic seabed in the 1860s.
The Pacific, a wider and deeper ocean basin and therefore more difficult to wire, received its first transoceanic cable in 1902. By the early 1900s, the global seafloor hosted around 200,000 miles of telegraph cables. And by the 1950s, that number reached nearly 500,000 miles of telephone and telegraph cables, with fiber-optic cables first joining the mix in the 1980s.
What has transformed Oregon into an undersea cable hotspot—and how is the installation process affecting a vibrant ocean ecosystem?
Back then, many transpacific cables landed in California, Washington, and British Columbia, where they could link up with transportation hubs and industrial centers on land. That began to change in 1991, when Oregon landed its first transpacific fiber-optic cable. Called the North Pacific Cable, the privately owned line connected Oregon to Alaska and Japan. In the three decades since, the state has welcomed a new fiber-optic cable every four or five years, in tandem with new data centers—large, high-security buildings that store rows of servers. These servers host the internet’s millions of websites.
There are significant onshore incentives for cable owners to land their lines in Oregon. Oregon’s “enterprise zones” tax-exemption program allows individual towns to negotiate property tax breaks for big construction projects, thereby saving companies millions of dollars each year. In exchange for the tax breaks, tech companies provide a small influx of jobs and tax revenue to small communities hurting from the decline of the timber industry. In 2015, Oregon lifted its cap on enterprise zones to attract even more data centers, just as more cables arrived along the shoreline.
Consider Meta, which owns a 4.6 million square foot data center complex in rural Prineville, Oregon. Although it’s far from the ocean in a former timber town, this data center connects to a network of underground fiber-optic cables, including the controversial undersea cable installed near Tierra del Mar. In 2015, the Oregonian reported that the data center complex received $30 million in tax breaks that year alone.
For Meta, as well as Amazon, Google, and Apple, Oregon offers a win, win, win.
So who exactly is losing?
The coastal ecosystem. During installation, it’s standard practice to bury cables multiple feet into the seabed to avoid snags by fishing vessels. The most common burial method is plowing, during which a remotely operated vehicle cuts a ditch into the seafloor and inserts the cable into the trough. Another method, jetting, uses high-pressure fluids to liquefy sediments on the seafloor, easily slicing a clean line into the seabed in which the cable can burrow. Companies also use directional drilling to bore diagonally into the seabed from the shore. All of these methods squish or displace any worms, crabs, sea stars, urchins, anemones, corals, or sponges living within the trenching path.
Once installed, submarine cables settle into the seafloor ecosystem. In search of hard substrate to call home, marine life will colonize the cable’s exterior. After a few decades of service, cable owners have historically abandoned their lines in the ocean, a decision that is both cheaper for companies and often results in less disturbance for colonizing species. Inert but not biodegradable, most dead cables will sit in the ocean indefinitely, hidden from the public who is usually none the wiser.
The 2020 Facebook/Edge Cable Holdings abandonment prompted Oregon to pass a 2021 law instituting firmer planning and decommissioning regulations for new undersea cable projects. Still, the increasing scrutiny doesn’t appear to be slowing the big tech companies. As Amazon builds its recently approved line to Guam and Singapore, the tech giant is also building another data center in Umatilla, Oregon, a small town on the Columbia River.
Data centers are no better for terrestrial environments than submarine cables are for marine. The buildings suck significant amounts of power from the grid. Oregon’s renewable energies, like hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River, can’t cover data centers’ growing energy demands, meaning utility providers must tap into fossil fuels and increase their greenhouse gas emissions. Despite Oregon’s efforts to decrease the state’s carbon footprint, some regions are moving backward in the fight against climate change. Big tech companies, and their big buildings, are spurring that reversal.
Across Oregon, communities and ecosystems are confronting the physical impacts of a world that runs on internet—impacts that our regulatory systems have yet to reckon with.
Republican Mike Erickson, left, is attempting his fourth run for Congress to represent Oregon’s 6th Congressional District. His race against incumbent Andrea Salinas, who bested him for the seat in 2022, is expected to be close, though national politics watchers give Salinas an edge.Courtesy of the Mike Erickson and Andrea Salinas campaigns
Week 5 of college football brings uniform heat that combines history with style.
The Oregon Ducks will make their Big Ten debut Saturday, renewing their Pac-12 rivalry against the UCLA Bruins.
In their matchup with an old foe, the Ducks will wear their “Mighty Oregon” throwback uniforms. The jerseys were inspired by the Ducks’ 1997 game against the Washington Huskies, where Oregon held a 24-3 lead before allowing Washington to score 25 consecutive points. Oregon then scored a touchdown in the final minutes to secure the victory.
Here are the rest of the best uniform combinations from Week 5 of college football.
It’s homecoming week for theMiami (Ohio) RedHawks, and their threads pay homage to history. The RedHawks will honor the legacy of the Western College for Women with blue jerseys, white pants and red trim against the Massachusetts Minutemen. The colors on the uniform represent the merging of Miami and Western College in 1974.
The jersey features a Miami logo patch on the right shoulder of the jersey that can be tapped by phones. The patch connects to a website that gives information about Miami’s homecoming, according to Miami’s athletic department.
Penn State has gotten off to an undefeated start this season. In their biggest test yet, the Nittany Lions will break out their “Generations of Greatness” threads against the No. 19-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini. The jerseys pay homage to the best Penn State teams since the late 1950s, with numbering, lion shrine, pant stripes and helmets.
The Boise State Broncoshave made their way into the AP Top 25 after a promising start to the beginning of their season — falling only to Oregon in Week 2, 37-34. With the Broncos looking to defend their No. 25 spot, they’ll break out a flashy blue look with gray lettering and orange trim against the Washington State Cougars.
The Arizona Wildcats will have another test in Week 5 after falling to the No. 14 Kansas State Wildcats in Week 3, but no loss can stop their style. The Wildcats are going all white against the No. 10-ranked Utah Utes.
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EUGENE- The No. 8 Oregon Ducks football team is preparing for its upcoming Big Ten conference debut on Saturday, Sept. 28 against a familiar opponent: the UCLA Bruins. The Ducks and Bruins will kick off at 8 p.m. in a late-night game under the lights of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
The Ducks enter conference play looking to remain undefeated. Oregon improved to 3-0 following a 49-14 win over their in-state rivals, the Oregon State Beavers, in their most recent matchup prior to their bye week.
“Our guys come out here and work every single week,” said Oregon coach Dan Lanning. “Sometimes a bye week can be a lull for teams. I thought our guys have attacked it with the proper approach of finding ways to continue to improve and get better. We talk about having a player-led team. I think that’s really shown up for our guys over the last several weeks, and it’s certainly shown up throughout the season so far.”
How to Watch
No. 8 Oregon (3-0) kicks off at 8 p.m. PT at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The game is broadcast on FOX.
The game will also be available on streaming services such as Sling TV, FUBO, and YouTube TV.
Preview
Oregon is looking to keep up its momentum as the team heads into the Rose Bowl Saturday night to face UCLA. Various Ducks have been instrumental to Oregon’s success this season. Oregon starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel has thrown for 914 yards and 6 touchdowns on 84 percent passing. Wide receiver Tez Johnson leads the Ducks with 22 receptions for 190 yards and two touchdowns, while tight end Terrance Ferguson has 159 receiving yards as well on the year.
Oregon has struggled on the offensive line, especially with the absence of center Matthew Bedford, who will not be available against UCLA on Saturday, 28th. Despite flaws on the offensive line, other position groups on Oregon’s defense have been successful. Linebacker and dual-sport athlete Bryce Boettcher has a team-high 25 total tackles, while Matayo Uiagalelei has two sacks on the season so far. Oregon’s secondary has also shown strength in Oregon’s non-conference games. Defensive backs Brandon Johnson and Nikko Reed each have an interception on the season, while Washington transfer cornerback Jabbar Muhammed has been able to lock down opponents’ top receivers.
UCLA (1-2), on the other hand, is off to a relatively rough start this season. The Bruins are looking to prove themselves after back-to-back losses, including a 34-17 loss to LSU on Saturday, Sept. 21. However, UCLA’s previous losses are no reason to count them out of this game. Although the Bruins lost to LSU, they managed to stay in the game and walked into halftime tied against one of the nation’s top football powerhouses.
UCLA has managed to cover the spread in seven of its last eight games as an underdog when playing with a rest disadvantage, while Oregon has failed to cover the spread in its last four games as a favorite when playing with a rest advantage.
UCLA receiver Rico Flores Jr. has dominated the Bruins’ offense, leading the team with nine catches for 160 yards and a touchdown. Running back TJ Harden leads the team in rushing with 72 yards. Defensively, Kain Medrano and Carson Schwesinger each have a team-high 21 total tackles with Medrano adding 18 solo tackles.
Although there have been high points for the Bruins, the likelihood of UCLA pulling off an upset against the No. 8 Ducks is low. Oregon has won each of its last 18 September games against non-AP-ranked teams, while UCLA has lost four of its last five games against conference opponents.
UCLA’s run game has been less than successful so far this season, which is not ideal when going up against Oregon’s defense, which managed to limit Heisman hopeful running back Ashton Jeanty earlier this season.
Prediction:
While UCLA has shown flashes of potential, Oregon is the clear favorite in this matchup. The Ducks have a strong offense, a solid defense, and a proven track record of success in September games. Additionally, UCLA’s run game has struggled this season, which could be a major problem against Oregon’s defense.
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