Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) recently signed an executive order placing a one-year moratorium on all new data center developments. As someone from Oswego, New York, a small, historically underinvested Rust Belt community upstate, Hochul’s moratorium ensures that the benefits of the artificial intelligence boom in my hometown are dead on arrival.

In addition to New York’s executive order, more than 10 states have proposed bills tantamount to a complete moratorium. Locally, municipalities are acting even faster, with at least 116 local moratoriums imposed across the country. There is also a growing appetite to get involved at the federal level, with Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) AI Data Center Moratorium Act.

Stalling on AI helps China. Unchecked growth shifts the bill to families

The Rust Belt finally has a shot at a comeback. Why are we sabotaging it?

It costs $183 to save 100,000 jobs: Why Trump’s trade doctrine is a no-brainer for America

These moratoriums are a logical political response to built-up resentment from deindustrialization in the 1990s. Barren brownfields and empty warehouses remain as painful physical reminders of a time when life felt more prosperous in many small towns.

It makes sense that the same people who lost their........

© Washington Examiner