OPINION:
The United States should stop building data centers. At least that’s the thinking of Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat. America’s favorite pair of socialists recently introduced a bill to “impose a moratorium on the construction of new AI data centers until strong national safeguards are in place.”
Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez argue that data centers use too much electricity and drive up energy costs. It’s true that data centers’ energy consumption may double or even triple by 2028, but more energy demand is not a problem. Rather, it’s a sign of a flourishing economy. Countries with higher energy consumption per capita also have higher gross domestic product per capita, indicating a higher quality of life.
That’s because energy powers factories that manufacture goods, trucks and ships that transport products over thousands of miles to consumers, computers and phones that keep us in touch with our loved ones, and countless other economic activities that make life better.
A federal moratorium on data centers would harm America’s economic growth and artificially suppress the energy demand needed to power artificial intelligence, which has the potential to transform the U.S. into a more productive and prosperous nation.
This temporary ban would push American tech companies to invest abroad rather than in America. The United States is already competing with the rest of the world to host these data centers. Companies are investing in new data centers in Nordic countries, which offer cool climates, cheap electricity and abundant land, as well as in India, which produces about 20% of the world’s data. A moratorium, however temporary, would send capital to other countries that otherwise would have been invested in America.
If Mr. Sanders and AOC are successful, then the jobs will move overseas. Building a single data center employs about 1,500 people, including electricians, HVAC technicians and construction laborers. Once a data center is completed, operations require about 100 to 200 employees.
A moratorium would hurt state and local governments that rely on the tax revenue to fund government services. Data centers, which require substantial land, pay property taxes to local governments that help fund schools, roads, police and fire departments.
A federal moratorium would be an economic disaster with essentially no upside. If it is ever considered, it should be left to local governments. If residents have concerns about data centers, then local officials should be allowed to temporarily restrict new construction, as some cities and counties have already done.
This approach respects local communities by letting them make decisions that directly affect them while allowing AI infrastructure to expand elsewhere in America. Tech firms could build data centers in areas that want them, whereas a federal ban would likely push those investments overseas.
Rather than relying on government overreach to curb energy demand, a better solution is to quickly expand energy supply. The challenge is that electricity projects typically take about 4½ years to connect to the grid, while data center demand is surging now.
The Trump administration’s recently published national AI legislative framework calls on tech companies to build, bring or buy new electricity supply to power their data centers and recommends reforming the federal permitting process to get energy projects online faster. The U.S. should expand its energy supply through forward-looking policy ideas such as these rather than discouraging energy consumption through government overreach.
• Austin Gae is a policy analyst at the Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise at Advancing American Freedom Foundation.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.