The freakout over data centers is just another fracking backlash we need to ignore

The future of America as a high-tech superpower is at a tipping point.

The shows 70% of Americans now oppose building new data centers in their communities, even though they are crucial to our future as a high-tech economy. Another report shows that 40% of new data centers have been delayed or canceled in 2026 — news thats deeply welcome to our opponents in the artificial intelligence (AI) and tech race, the Communist Chinese Party.

Data centers have become an electoral issue for the midterms, even in a red state like Texas where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has announced a construction moratorium. Its probably the only thing he has in common with ultra-liberal Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York: a willingness to hit the pause button on data centers.

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This backlash comes despite the fact that every policymaker knows that data centers are needed to power our future economy, to the Internet of Things and the cloud, and that the only real beneficiary of a moratorium will be China. Still, the public remains unconvinced, especially when it faces a zoning proposal to build a data center half a mile from its backyard.

This all sounds discouraging, but weve been here before. Just a decade ago, the advent of large-scale fracking, or horizontal drilling, for oil and gas faced a similar frenzy of opposition. If todays anti-data center forces have strong support from communist China (which has been linked to more than 200 accounts on X, promoting data center misinformation) then it was Russian President Vladimir Putins Russian media that amplified the anti-fracking movement here and in Europe.

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It got so bad that fracking became a flashpoint in the culture wars, with left-wing celebrities like Jane Fonda, Matt Damon and Mark Ruffalo organizing protests and blockades, resulting in bans on fracking in several states.

Yet, in the end, the fearmongers lost and the energy companies won, as did Americas strategic and economic interests. Today, thanks to fracking, America is the worlds No. 1 oil and gas producer. Thats why hostilities with Iran havent caused a panic at the pump. A new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston says without Americas current oil and gas independence, the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz would have cut the U.S. employment rate by nearly 2%.

How the energy companies turned the public around on fracking offers powerful lessons for todays AI executives and power companies on data centers.

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First, fracking companies understood that all politics with environmental issues like this, is local. This isnt a war you can macro-manage from the boardroom or Washington. Instead, its a series of wars that have to be fought state by state, district by district, even neighborhood by neighborhood.

This means partnering with local businesses and local governments, to talk about how building a new data center expands jobs and opportunities for everyone, not just AI or tech companies. It also means seeking out places that will welcome a new data center for the same reasons, and using them as