OPINION:
America’s $10 trillion tech industry is confronting the greatest threat to its future expansions and profitability in 40 years.
The threat is not coming from Beijing, Japan, Europe or even the regulators in Washington.
The revolt against data centers is a ferocious grassroots rebellion that has sprung up almost overnight in towns across America. It is coming from both ends of the political spectrum: the tea party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement rolled into one.
These are enraged citizens who have taken to the streets, city council meetings and the voting booth.
The voters’ loud and clear message: Keep your data centers out of my backyard. They are worried about their jobs, their water quality, the noise, their utility bills, property taxes skyrocketing and even the alleged risk of cancer.
Very few of these complaints are accurate, but in politics, perception is reality. In many areas of the country, data centers are about as welcome as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The tech industry has been caught with its pants completely down. As they invest $700 billion in capital for artificial intelligence expansions, they never bothered to ask Americans what they think.
Public opinion polling finds that by a 2:1 margin, Americans are more nervous than excited about AI.
Of course, without data centers, AI, search engines, cellphones and robotics do not work. These data centers are their oxygen source.
What is to be done to stop the advancing army of opposition? First, the industry needs to spend 10 times more on informing Americans how these data centers and the AI revolution will benefit their families.
Most people worry that, because of job displacement, this technology will make families poorer.
What is clear is that rolling into town with the cement mixers and the construction crews unannounced is inciting fury.
If you ask a girl to the dance and she responds like you are Frankenstein’s monster, then move on and find a willing partner.
They are out there. Scores of communities are eager for high-paying construction jobs, new state-of-the-art infrastructure, tax revenue to pay for schools and hospitals, and land-value appreciation. Solicit bids from communities desperately seeking 21st-century redevelopment projects that could make them miniature Silicon Valleys.
Instead of cutting insider political deals, hold auctions on where the next data centers will be built — and take the best offer.
The two things America is not running out of are land and the desire for good jobs. If upper-middle-class suburban towns snub the projects, then build the data centers in enterprise zones, abandoned areas of major cities, and/or low-cost, neglected rural areas that are enthusiastic about the hundreds of millions of economic redevelopment dollars.
Amazon has successfully used this strategy through its warehouses and regional centers, which breathe new vitality into towns across the country.
One of the world’s largest data centers has been an economic boon for Loudoun County, Virginia. It has brought high-paying union construction jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue used to build schools, roads, parks and police protection, and lower residential utility bills.
Data centers and power plants are the new digital interstate highway system.
Start building them where they are wanted, in places where the citizens will celebrate rather than protest the ribbon-cutting ceremonies.
• Stephen Moore is a co-founder of Unleash Prosperity and a senior fellow at America First Policy Institute.
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