Welcome to a data center near you

There are only 98 days left until the midterm election. For months, there has been speculation about what the deciding issue will be this year. Will it turn out to be affordability, as Democrats want? Or rampant communism, as Republicans claim? Or could it be the Iran war, the price of gas, Trump family corruption, or aid to Israel?

Surprisingly, it looks like, coast to coast, the one big issue in this year’s midterms may be one we least expected: data centers.

It is something nobody was even talking about a year ago. But suddenly, it’s front and center on every level: national, state, local and international.

President Trump convened a panel of utility CEOs to talk data centers this week. Fifteen states, red and blue, have already banned or delayed construction of any new data centers. Many countries have rejected plans for them. The headline in a recent Italian website blared: “Will we have enough electricity for all data centers?”

Ironically, the crisis over data centers is one of our own making. We spend too much time on our smartphones and laptops. The phenomenal growth in the use of social media plus the explosive new dependency on AI have created a massive need for new electric generating plants, or so-called data centers, which have been popping up like mushrooms all over the country.

In many states, in fact, the debate over building new data centers is occurring after the horse is already out of the barn. As of today, there........

© The Hill