By Doug Kelly:
David A. Deptula’s June 1 op-ed, “An overlooked key to national security is at risk,” was right: Data infrastructure is now as essential to American military power as runways and aircraft carriers. The United States’ ability to deter China, win the artificial intelligence race, strengthen its military and protect its digital systems depends on America having the infrastructure to store, process, move and secure information at speed and scale.
Data centers are also engines of local prosperity. They create years of construction work for electricians, pipe fitters, operators and skilled trades workers. They generate long-term tax revenue for schools, roads and first responders. They often help finance improvements to the electrical grid that many communities desperately need. And they give states, counties and towns a stake in the industry that will define the next generation of the United States’ economic strength.
That does not mean rubber-stamping every project. Communities should ask serious questions about energy, water, noise and ratepayer protection. But the goal must be to shape these projects to deliver more local benefits, not block them altogether.
China is not pausing its AI build-out. America cannot answer that with a patchwork of local bans and reflexive opposition.
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