OPINION:
American socialists such as Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, have declared war on artificial intelligence data centers, demanding a federal moratorium on their development.
“Congress has a moral obligation to stand with the American people and stop the expansion of these data centers,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in March. If left unregulated, she warned, unimpeded data center construction could “harm communities,” “destroy the environment” and “increase electricity or utility prices.”
Funny that she cites those specific reasons.
Let’s not forget that AOC and Bernie, along with the Democratic Socialists of America and many more far-left groups, are the same people who have been pushing the Green New Deal for several years.
If ever an agenda were tailor-made to undermine local economies and inflate energy costs, it is the Green New Deal.
The Green New Deal, which was officially introduced as a bill in Congress in 2019, shunned reliable, affordable and abundant energy in favor of unreliable and unaffordable energy. It did so under the notion that if humanity did not immediately abandon fossil fuel use and transition to so-called green energy, then the planet would be in peril and humanity’s survival could be in doubt.
In 2019, AOC claimed that if we don’t address climate change, “the world is going to end in 12 years.”
However, at almost the exact same time, her chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, confessed, “The interesting thing about the Green New Deal is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all. Do you guys think of it as a climate thing? Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”
The Green New Deal, which remains a key component of the socialist agenda, was not enacted in its entirety at the federal level. However, bits of it have been put into place at the state level and stuffed into bills such as the infamous Inflation Reduction Act.
The act supercharged subsidies for green energy, hiding their real cost. It incentivized the construction of massive solar panel complexes and wind turbines at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.
Despite the government subsidies, so-called green energy remains far more expensive than conventional sources. It is also far less dependable because the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow. This is why the residents of states such as California suffer from sky-high electricity bills and intermittent blackouts.
It also must be emphasized that, as common sense dictates, building massive solar facilities and enormous windmills is not exactly good for the environment.
Their sheer footprint dwarfs the size of a conventional power plant. They also require rare-earth minerals, tons of concrete and the construction of transmission lines to connect to faraway customers. This means lots of forest clear-cutting, destruction of natural habitat, killing of wildlife, and the creation of an array of eyesores across the landscape.
By 2026, Americans have grown increasingly skeptical of the left’s cries of climate doom as they were a decade ago, so the left is now trying to make the case that its primary concern is protecting ratepayers.
“We have to protect the American ratepayer from some of the downsides of the explosion of what has been taking place across the country, particularly in connection with data centers,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, said at a press conference in April.
Mr. Jeffries wants the American people to believe that he and his party are genuinely concerned about the plight of ratepayers (because he believes it is politically advantageous). In truth, he and his party have championed the very policies that have made electricity more expensive in the first place.
I hope the American people do not forget that during the last administration, energy prices surged across the board because the Biden administration prioritized green energy while fighting fossil fuels.
America is blessed with abundant energy, whether we are talking about coal, oil or natural gas. It is also blessed with ample intellectual talent. We should be at the cutting edge of data center development.
Let’s use our domestic energy resources to fuel the American AI revolution. Americans should be mindful that the best way to protect ratepayers is for this nation to drill, baby, drill.
• Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
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