Datacenter Towns Hold All the Cards Before the Golden Shovel Hits Dirt

Town need to invoice the future before the dirt moves.

Alex Ashe | September 5, 2026

I have worked in information technology since the 1980s along Boston’s Route 128, the old “Golden Semicircle” that helped invent the American computer industry. I have watched machines shrink, networks explode, and server rooms become windowless campuses that draw as much power as a small city. So, when a member of Congress who mixed drinks for a living starts issuing national rules for data centers, I pay attention—not because bartending is dishonorable, but because servers, substations, and high-voltage feeders are not cocktail recipes.

 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders have pushed an Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act that would freeze new AI-scale centers until Washington writes a thick new rulebook. Sen. John Fetterman called that approach “China First.” President Trump has said Beijing cannot believe Americans are trying to kill their own buildout. Both points are closer to the engineering reality than the slogan that we must “choose humanity over profit” and then stop pouring concrete.

Graphic: Truth Social Post

Data centers are the factories of the future. Like it or not, the country that hosts the computers will host the models, the talent, and a large share of the data. A pause stateside does not stop the CCP. It does not put American data records in a safer cloud. It simply moves the work and the infrastructure offshore. That is the national argument. 

The local argument is more powerful, because the people who actually control the dirt are not in a Capitol hearing room. They are on planning boards, in volunteer fire companies, and in houses next to the proposed fence line. They are in a position of strength before the political........

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