A word of caution to the Right as the midterms approach: do not run on messages from the Left. The policies of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) base should not be the north star. So, why borrow from their playbook on data centers?
Data centers are good. They are a boon for the economy and essential for national security and quality of life. You are reading this column because of data centers. You can share this article on social media because of data centers. We should support data centers for many reasons.
Energy production. President Trump’s “Ratepayer Protection Plan” does something extraordinary and unprecedented: it allowed tech companies to build power plants. Never has industry been allowed to act as a utility. If a manufacturing plant enters a town, the mayor cuts the ribbon and touts the new jobs, but there is less focus on the surge in power demand. If a school or hospital is built, the burden falls to the local utility to absorb their energy needs. For the first time, industries needing more power can produce it themselves, benefiting the entire community in the process. This is incredible news for America’s energy workers.
In the words of President Trump, “the data centers now are mandated by me that they build their own electricity, so they’re not taking it from the grid. It’s going to lower the cost of electricity.”
Jobs. Data centers are private construction projects with private financing, not some Keynesian, centrally planned boondoggle like the California high-speed rail to nowhere. These are hundreds of thousands of construction jobs for American workers, paid with private dollars, buying billions in materials and goods and services from the local community. To quote the president, “If you pick the right location, what it means for a community is jobs and lots of money and lower taxes.”
Tax revenue. Data centers are massive producers of tax revenue. Loudoun County, Virginia, hauled in $1.3 billion in tax revenue from data centers with a 30% reduction in local property taxes. Pretty ironic, considering Loudoun is already considered the richest county in America. In one Louisiana school district, teachers will receive$50,000 bonuses this year, thanks to a Meta data center project.
The Left claims they oppose data centers because of “affordability” and rising electricity prices, yet under Biden, they closed over 100 viable coal and natural gas power plants under the pretext of climate change. In a detailed white paper called “The Looming American Electricity Affordability Crisis,” my organization warned the nascent second Trump administration of the disaster they inherited.
The Left grounds their opposition to data centers on land use. Yet Biden spent tens of billions to purchase farmland for failed wind and solar projects. They turned our farmland into a bird-killing hellscape with intermittent technology purchased with tax dollars from communist China. Not a peep from them about “farmland” or food prices or the threat to rural America.
The Left fights data centers because of the threat to American jobs, yet under Biden, they flooded the country with millions of illegal aliens whose cheap, off-book labor undercut wages for every American worker.
This exposure is why the Left opposes data centers. Their agenda failed: green energy mandates failed the grid, outsourced jobs failed the economy, endless immigration failed the nation. The Left has failed rural America. They collectively now point to data centers as a boogeyman, the culprit of all our economic and social ills, rather than risk the truth of their failures being known.
All that before discussing the threat from Communist China who wants to see all data center construction stop so they can beat America in the AI race and not for some “global community” kumbaya. An Axios headline this summer warned that “China just erased America’s AI lead.” The threat is real.
I haven’t even mentioned property rights. I met a 7th-generation Virginia farmer in tears over the 8-figure check from a data center developer. Some may say they “sold out,” but they see it as a gift from God, a reward for perseverance, and a sign of American success. The nerve of a governor or a politician to issue a “moratorium” out of political cowardice and deny someone the right to sell their land. That is about as un-American as it can get.
I am not oblivious to the polls. If you believe them, more people want to live next to a nuclear power plant than a data center. The public relations efforts of those supporting data centers have been lackluster, to say the least.
I welcome a robust discussion on data centers. As a farmer in Virginia, the data capital center of the world, I pass more than 200 data centers on the way to Washington, D.C.
Politicians need to understand the concerns of their constituents, but do not run from a good issue because the Left pours money into scare tactics and media propaganda for their political advantage. Bernie Sanders has been espousing socialism for half a century, and I wouldn’t trust AOC to pour me a proper pint. They both oppose data centers. Anyone embracing their position is doomed to fail. Anyone using their talking points should have their head examined, and their conservative credentials revoked.
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Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. He also runs a sheep and cattle farm in rural Virginia. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF
