> the datacenter doesn't have a few million dollars to spare.

What makes you think so? Datacentres are already very expensive, and getting permissions quicker (or at all) might be worth a couple million dollars.

> The heat is waste heat. If it cannot be recovered as a profitable source of energy, [...]

Yes, they should make all deals that make sense for both parties, definitely. But it's only viable in some places some of the time.