How many times over the last fifty years have Americans been told we were running out of oil, food, or water?
Alarmists have repeatedly predicted imminent collapse and scarcity. We were told the world was running out of fossil fuels. We were told economic growth was unsustainable. We were told mankind had reached its limits.Yet time and time again, those predictions failed for one simple reason: they ignored the power of human innovation.
America did not become the greatest economic power in human history by embracing decline, fear, or scarcity. We built railroads across continents, pipelines across states, power plants that electrified cities, and industries that transformed the modern world. That spirit of American exceptionalism built Texas, and it is the same spirit that must guide us as we enter the next technological revolution.
Today, the latest target of America’s growing anti-development movement is around data centers. Activists are organizing against new power generation, industrial projects, and digital infrastructure needed to support the future economy. Certainly, Texans should ask hard questions about water usage, electricity demand, landowner rights, and responsible development. Those concerns are legitimate and deserve serious oversight.
But somewhere along the way, too many leaders began confusing oversight with obstruction. Too many continue falling back on the failed socialist playbook of rationing, central planning, and managed decline.
Texas is growing by more than one thousand new residents every single day. A state experiencing that kind of growth cannot afford to adopt an anti-development mentality. Growth requires infrastructure, a modern economy cannot function without reliable electricity, broadband connectivity, and computing capacity capable of powering artificial intelligence.
I understand why many Americans are skeptical of Big Tech. I share many of those concerns myself. Silicon Valley has spent years censoring speech, pushing political activism, harvesting personal data, and accumulating enormous cultural influence with very little accountability.
If I could put the AI genie back in the bottle entirely, I probably would. But that ship has sailed. Artificial intelligence is here, and it is going to shape the global economy whether we like it or not. We cannot allow legitimate concerns about Big Tech to become a proxy war against the infrastructure America needs to compete and win.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what appears to be happening.
Since the hippies in 1960s, activist movements have opposed pipelines, refineries, highways, and energy production with the same basic message: stop building. Today, that same anti-growth mentality is being applied to data centers. No matter the project, if it represents industrial growth or expanded energy demand, organized opposition quickly follows.
History proves this mindset wrong.
Conservatives should ask themselves why they are suddenly standing alongside Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the same activist movement that spent decades trying to shut down pipelines, refineries, oil and gas production, and nearly every major infrastructure project in America.
The reality is simple: the future economy is being built right now.
Artificial intelligence will shape manufacturing, medicine, national defense, finance, and energy production for decades to come. The infrastructure supporting that revolution is now part of a global strategic race, and Communist China understands the stakes perfectly.
While America debates whether infrastructure should even be built, China is rapidly expanding industrial production, electricity generation, semiconductor manufacturing, and artificial intelligence investment. Beijing is not operating from a mindset of self-imposed decline. Chinese leadership understands technological dominance will define economic and geopolitical power in the twenty-first century.
That is why recent claims from investor and Shark Tank host Kevin O’Leary deserve attention. O’Leary recently offered proof that organizations opposing a massive Utah data center project have financial ties connected to Chinese influence networks. Recent reporting by Power the Future shows that Chinese state-linked propaganda outlets may have helped fund and amplify anti-data center activism in the United States as America and Communist China compete for dominance in artificial intelligence.
Frankly, if true, that should not surprise anyone. America’s adversaries benefit when Americans oppose the very infrastructure needed to compete against them economically and technologically.
Of course, none of this means Texas should ignore legitimate local concerns. Water matters. Grid reliability matters. Property rights matter. Rural communities deserve a voice in the process. Responsible development still matters, and companies should be expected to operate responsibly and transparently.
But Texas has always solved challenges through innovation, investment, and free enterprise, not through fear-driven obstructionism.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: The anti-energy movement has turned its sights on AI | OPINION
Reporting by By Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian, Texas Oil and Gas Regulator, Special to the Amarillo Globe-News / Amarillo Globe-News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
