PERSPECTIVE: Why We Need Data Centers—and Honest Conversations About Them
Date Posted: November 13, 2025
Posted In: Discussion, Environment/Sustainability, Projects,
From Bob Clark Beyond: From the beginning of American progress, every leap forward has sparked resistance. The stagecoach gave way to the railroad. Farmers saw their landscapes transformed by factories. Steel mills and coal plants built our cities but blackened our skies. Then came the car, the highway system, and the industrial boom that powered a middle class and redefined prosperity.
Now, in the 21st century, the engine of the modern economy is no longer made of iron and smoke—but of silicon and light. Data centers and artificial intelligence are today’s railroads, and they’re facing the same backlash that every disruptive force in history has endured.
But let’s be honest: the driver of this transformation isn’t some faceless corporation or foreign entity—it’s us. Every one of us. From the moment we wake up, we’re surrounded by the results of our own consumption: the mattress we sleep on, the toothbrush in the bathroom, the soap and shampoo in the shower. We watch the morning news on a TV powered by a grid we constantly strain, while shaking our heads about the climate change we help accelerate.
And this was before the digital explosion—before the BlackBerry, the iPhone, the iPad, before every moment of our lives required a cloud connection. Now we stream our music, our meetings, and our memories, all hosted in vast data centers we can’t see and barely understand, yet depend on completely.
For decades, consumer demand and globalization have reshaped our energy grid and manufacturing base. We outsourced production for cheaper goods, cheaper parts, and cheaper labor. Chips from Taiwan, plastics from China, textiles from everywhere. The result? A fragile global supply chain, an aging utility grid, and a growing realization that our dependence on foreign production has become a national security risk.
Rebuilding that strength—onshoring manufacturing, modernizing the grid, and regaining control of our economic destiny—requires power. Literal, physical power. Nuclear, solar, wind, and yes, natural gas. It requires data centers, chip fabs, and advanced industrial infrastructure. But the moment we try to build those things, the chorus rises again: Not in my backyard.