AI doomsayers proclaim the sky is falling, with each new data center taxing the electricity grid, sucking up scarce water, and immiserating local residents. It all seems quite dire—and it reminds me of the last time a massively beneficial technology was almost stopped in its tracks by misplaced NIMBYism: fracking.

Just like fracking, the fears fomented by data center opponents are overblown. And, again just like fracking, the benefits of the AI revolution will be manifold.

Back when fracking was still new on the scene, I attended many town meetings in my native Ohio debating drilling leases and pipeline mineral rights. There, alarmists poured panic into an information vacuum. Agitators hawked worst case scenarios about earthquakes and flammable drinking water. Activists spent years blocking not just regional pipelines through Ohio and Pennsylvania, but the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines nationally. Everyone was afraid.

Shale advocates had to break out of the doom loop and avoid being smothered to death by bureaucracy. But after they did, nobody can deny the results. The U.S. produces more crude oil than any country, ever, and we are the global leader in lower-emissions natural gas. Our energy revolution increased our national security, lowered prices, and helped reduce carbon emissions.

The anti-shale brushfire burned itself out as energy abundance became a reality and prosperity scaled.

The AI buildout has even more potential to benefit America........

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