⏩ FP! Week In Review #42
Also: Key Up Wing and Down Wing news from the week that was
In Case You Missed It ...
✨ Data center distortions: My interview with energy policy analyst Shuting Pomerleau (Tuesday, 31 minutes)
Please check out the full transcript of this insightful chat, below at the end of the issue. One favorite exchange:
Pethokoukis: Critics often portray data centers as resource-intensive warehouses that create few jobs and little local value. What economic benefits do they actually bring to the communities where they are built?
Pomerleau: I would say that the opposition to AI data centers is probably one of the biggest pieces of misinformation out there. It is true, if you think about actual head counts of jobs created, they do create a lot more jobs in the initial construction phase of these data centers. They hired construction companies, electricians, and hook up everything. Then, once you’re done, you have all the computers running there 24/7. But I think the right way to look at it is these are businesses that are paying taxes, they’re paying property taxes. If you look at Loudoun County, which is really the hub of Virginia Data Center Alley, it holds about 80 percent of the data centers for the Commonwealth. Wall Street Journal had an audit out this week saying about 90 percent of the county’s operating budget comes from data centers.
Now you and I can sit here and debate whether it’s a good thing to put so many eggs in one basket and depend on one sector so heavily for the budget. But they say if all the data centers were to disappear tomorrow, the average household would be required to pay $5,800 per year to receive the same level and quality public services.
I think the right way to think about it is, what sort of regulatory and investment environment does your state or local county want to project for businesses? There are companies selling goods and services to end customers. They’re not just walking around corporations, we all use our goods and services.
I think it’s important to think about that from that perspective and not fall for these very emotional narratives against AI data centers.
✨ How fast is transformative AI approaching? (Wednesday, 1191 words)
