By Daniel Turner | Commentary, The Daily Wire
A word of caution to the Right as the midterms approach: do not run on messages from the Left. The policies of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) base should not be the north star. So, why borrow from their playbook on data centers?
Data centers are good. They are a boon for the economy and essential for national security and quality of life. You are reading this column because of data centers. You can share this article on social media because of data centers. We should support data centers for many reasons.
Energy production. President Trump’s “Ratepayer Protection Plan” does something extraordinary and unprecedented: it allowed tech companies to build power plants. Never has industry been allowed to act as a utility. If a manufacturing plant enters a town, the mayor cuts the ribbon and touts the new jobs, but there is less focus on the surge in power demand. If a school or hospital is built, the burden falls to the local utility to absorb their energy needs. For the first time, industries needing more power can produce it themselves, benefiting the entire community in the process. This is incredible news for America’s energy workers.
In the words of President Trump, “the data centers now are mandated by me that they build their own electricity, so they’re not taking it from the grid. It’s going to lower the cost of electricity.”
Jobs. Data centers are private construction projects with private financing, not some Keynesian, centrally planned boondoggle like the California high-speed rail to nowhere. These are hundreds of thousands of construction jobs for American workers, paid with private dollars, buying billions in materials and goods and services from the local community. To quote the president, “If you pick the right location, what it means for a community is jobs and lots of money and lower taxes.”
Tax revenue. Data centers are massive producers of tax revenue. Loudoun County, Virginia, hauled in $1.3 billion in tax revenue from data centers with a 30% reduction in local property taxes. Pretty ironic, considering Loudoun is already considered the richest county in America. In one Louisiana school district, teachers will receive$50,000 bonuses this year, thanks to a Meta data center project.
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