Op-ed: data centers not the enemy

By Brent Stevens

Many well-meaning people scrolling Facebook don’t realize they’re being pulled into a coordinated narrative. They see emotionally charged posts with sensational headlines about “dirty data centers” destroying the planet, share them in outrage, and join local opposition efforts—unaware that much of the anti-data center movement rests on a rigid “green energy now” ideology amplified by outside influencers and well-funded campaigns.

Why the Sudden Surge in Opposition?

Data centers have operated across America for more than 50 years, quietly powering everyday internet use. What changed is the explosive growth of artificial intelligence. AI training and inference demand hyperscale facilities with unprecedented electricity needs—often rivaling the consumption of small cities. This surge, combined with a highly coordinated national campaign that intensified in 2025, turned data centers into a lightning rod. Foreign interests and activist networks have seized the moment to stall U.S. AI progress at a critical time.

Ohio’s Recent Step Backward

Just recently, Ohio announced a pause on new data center tax exemptions while the General Assembly’s Joint Data Center Committee studies the industry’s growth. Although framed as a temporary review, this decision puts Ohio at a competitive disadvantage. Thirty-seven other states continue to offer robust data center incentives to attract these high-investment projects. The pause risks signaling that Ohio is no longer open for business in one of the most important industries of our time—potentially costing communities like Van Wert billions in investment, jobs, and local revenue.

Green America’s “Dirty Data” Campaign

A prominent national voice in this effort is Green America, which launched its “Dirty Data: Stop Big AI from Polluting Our Climate & Communities” campaign in August of 2025. On the surface, the message sounds responsible—warnings about pollution, higher electricity bills, and climate impacts. But the campaign advances a simplistic narrative that “green energy is ready right now—no transition needed.” It operates within a larger, well-orchestrated network of outside-funded activism.

The Scale of Coordinated Opposition

In December 2025, more than 230 national, state, and local environmental and progressive organizations sent a coordinated letter to Congress demanding a nationwide moratorium on new data center construction. This directly fed into legislation: In March 2026, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) introduced the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act (S.4214), which would impose an immediate federal pause on new AI data centers. An April, 2026 American Energy Institute report documented more than $39 million in foreign funding—primarily from European billionaires and foundations such as the Wyss Foundation, Chris Hohn/TCI, the Oak Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, and Denmark’s KR Foundation—flowing to a core network of U.S. activist organizations driving opposition across 37+ states. Even more concerning are foreign influence vectors aimed at slowing U.S. AI infrastructure. Chinese state media echoes activist talking points on energy and emissions while Beijing fast-tracks its own data centers with massive subsidies.
The CCP-aligned Singham network has produced domestic content opposing U.S. AI development. Investor Kevin O’Leary, developing a major AI data center campus in Utah, has publicly accused certain opposition groups of Chinese-linked funding ties and shared evidence with federal authorities, warning: “China’s our adversary… We can’t let the Chinese beat us in AI.”

What the “Green-Only” Advocates Push and What They Ignore

Their proposed solution often involves solar panels, wind turbines, and home battery storage through Community Partnership or Virtual Power Plant models. It sounds clean and community-friendly. Yet there is no honest transitional plan. Advocates declare “zero fossil fuels, no nukes, period”—while ignoring today’s explosive AI demand, the intermittency limits of renewables, and the massive real-world environmental and human costs of mining for “green” technologies (including child labor in cobalt mining and enormous water consumption in lithium extraction).

Real-World Proof: Renewables — Only Isn’t Ready

California’s ongoing energy reliability challenges, the April 2025 blackouts in Spain and Portugal, and China’s 2025 addition of roughly 78 GW of new coal-fired power (with another 161 GW proposed) tell a different story. China is scaling renewables aggressively but refuses to gamble its energy security on intermittency alone—while the United States has started zero new nuclear plants in the same period. A successful “domino effect” of stalled projects would hand victory in the global AI race to another country without a single shot fired.

The Stakes and the Path Forward

Data centers are not the enemy. They are the critical infrastructure America needs to stay competitive in AI, national security, and economic leadership. Using our existing grid and natural gas as a reliable bridge for the next 5–10 years is not surrender—it is responsible realism that buys time to scale better
solutions. Many good-hearted Facebook users are unknowingly participating in a manipulated narrative. We cannot let a false “green is ready now” story—amplified by outside money and foreign influence—create a cascade of lost investment and lost opportunity.

What We Can Do Next

Reject the false narrative. Insist on a real transitional design that faces mining realities, grid limits, and strategic competition with China. Understand how platforms like Facebook spread coordinated campaigns. Demand transparency and local benefits. Only then can we keep the lights on, protect American leadership, and deliver the cleaner energy future we all want. In places like Van Wert, Ohio, we have the chance to lead with facts—securing high-wage jobs, strengthening our schools and infrastructure, and ensuring that outside pressures do not dictate our community’s future. America cannot afford to lose this race. It’s time to push back with facts before the dominoes fall.

Sources

• Green America. “Dirty Data: Stop Big AI from Polluting Our Climate & Communities” campaign (launched August 2025). https://greenamerica.org/ai-polluting-our-climate
• U.S. Senate. S.4214 – Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act. Introduced March 25, 2026, by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/4214
• American Energy Institute. “Foreign-Funded Opposition to U.S. Data Center Expansion” (April 2026 report documenting >$39 million in foreign funding to 12 U.S. organizations). https://americanenergyinstitute.com
• Bitcoin Policy Institute. “Foreign Influence in the Campaign against American AI” (May 2026 report on converging foreign influence vectors).
• Public statements by Kevin O’Leary (May–June 2026) regarding Chinese-linked funding channels in data center opposition (shared with federal authorities, covered in Yahoo Finance, Washington Post, and related reporting).
• Industry and global energy monitoring reports on China’s 2025 coal additions (~78 GW online, 161 GW proposed), U.S. nuclear starts, and renewable integration challenges (including California reliability issues and the April 2025 Spain/Portugal blackout events).
• State policy tracking on data center tax incentives (37+ states actively offerin incentives contrasted with Ohio’s recent pause).

Editor’s note: Brent Stevens is the executive director of Van Wert Area Economic Development Corporation