Remember the internet in the 1990s? Yahoo’s home page had categorized links like News & Media, Business & Economy, or Science. Clicking those links opened new pages with more links, without accounting for relevance or personal preferences. Yahoo had a search box, but search wasn’t a thing until Google came along.
Google still dominates conventional search but engagement with chatbots like ChatGPT is rapidly accelerating. Last year, Google embedded its Gemini A.I. in their Chrome browser. The search giant knows where the future is moving.
We are witnessing the earliest stages of artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Decades from now, the younger generation will look back amazed that their digital lives once relied on unsophisticated search engines and relatively simple algorithms.
Major economic shifts require new infrastructure. In our current moment, that means data centers. Progress has always stirred apprehension about the unknown and the pushback we’re seeing today is nothing new.
In the 19th century, small mobs of artisans broke into English factories to destroy the mechanized looms that were gaining a foothold in the textile industry. While the Luddites earned a place in history textbooks, the industrial revolution marched forward, spreading phenomenal prosperity and raising living standards for the billions of us who have followed.
Thankfully, today’s equivalents – the NIMBYs – don’t need to resort to violence. Their alarm with data centers manifests itself at local zoning board meetings and on social media platforms made possible by the same data centers they oppose.
It’s concerning that their narrow view has penetrated broader public opinion, especially since compelling evidence disproves their claims. Let’s examine three.
Data centers raise electricity rates: Actually, they don’t. Just last month, American Electric Power announced a base-rate reduction for its Indiana customers. The reason for the lower rates: load growth and increased revenue from large customers, including data centers.
Also, consider this headline from the Washington Post: “There’s a reason electricity prices have been rising. And it’s not data centers.” If the data center doomers haven’t convinced the Post’s “climate zeitgeist reporter” then that should tell us something.
Data centers strain local water supplies: One of Kentucky’s competitive advantages is access to abundant water and a regulatory framework that has dealt with large volume water withdrawal for decades. Over time, technologies like closed-loop cooling along with water reuse and recycling will significantly diminish the water required to operate the facilities.
Data centers don’t create good jobs: Tell that to the thousands of skilled laborers who build, wire, and plumb the facilities. Amazon is posting entry-level data center technician positions in Hilliard, Ohio paying $50,000-$70,000 a year (plus benefits). Management positions in Amazon’s data centers pay salaries north of $130,000.
Critics respond that it’s not the type of positions, but what they say is a small number of permanent jobs. As compared to what? Not having these jobs at all? Letting them go to Ohio, Indiana, or another surrounding state?
Anchor investments initiate industry clusters, networks of economic relationships that create a competitive advantage for related firms in a particular region. Suppliers that want to provide goods, services and logistics will be as important to future job creation as the data centers themselves. However, Kentucky needs the data centers first to get those jobs.
With only a few weeks left in the 2026 legislative session, how is this playing out in the General Assembly?
There’s consensus that these technology giants should pay their fair share for their energy needs. Legislation moving through the process intends to provide state-level protections for electricity ratepayers.
The bill sponsor, Rep. Josh Bray, R- Mt. Vernon, sees the opportunity with the right policy framework. The current version is inconsistent with the Ratepayer Protection Pledge signed last week at the White House. It applies a one-size-fits-all approach to a challenge that requires nuance and flexibility.
There’s still time to get it right. Bray is a thoughtful legislator and should be open to changes in the Senate that account for the differences in how our state’s utilities provide power to their customers.
Transformational investments don’t fall out of the sky and the sky isn’t falling as data center critics would have us believe.
Amazon, Google and Meta have announced $23 billion in combined investment in Indiana. Their General Assembly took a “do no harm” approach in its recent legislative session.
Frankfort would be wise to follow Indianapolis’s lead.
Andrew McNeill is the President and Senior Policy Fellow at the Kentucky Forum for Rights, Economics and Education (KYFREE). He served as the Deputy State Budget and Policy Director in Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration. His email address is amcneill@kyfree.org.