Bernie Sanders

This is an opinion column

If Senator Bernie Sanders came to Alabama tomorrow and proposed a moratorium on new data centers, Republicans would lose their minds.

They would call it socialism. They would call it central planning. They would call it another example of government deciding what Americans can build or do on their own property.

And they would be right. So, here’s my question. Why are conservative city councils across Alabama doing it for him?

Earlier this year, Congress’s two most prominent democratic socialists, Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, introduced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act, legislation that would effectively halt the construction of new AI data centers until Congress creates a sweeping federal regulatory framework.

It’s central planning in its purest form. Government picking winners and losers while undermining our nation’s future. Conservatives have spent decades fighting this type of government overreach.

Yet over the past several weeks, the cities of Homewood, Cullman, and Leeds have all adopted temporary moratoriums on new data center development. Jefferson County has debated doing the same. The motivations may be different, but the effect is identical.

Local officials have raised legitimate questions about infrastructure, water, power demands, and zoning. Those questions deserve to be addressed but moratoriums aren’t the answer. Investors have a funny way of avoiding places that tell them they are not welcome. They simply build somewhere else.

Every month Alabama spends debating whether it wants data centers, is another month Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas spend welcoming them.

This is not just about economic development. It’s about whether America intends to lead the AI revolution or cede it to China.

Retired Air Force Lieutenant General David Deptula recently wrote that nearly every function of the United States military depends on the ability to store, process and secure enormous amounts of data. Data centers aren’t simply warehouses filled with servers.

Data centers are the industrial backbone of the AI age.

China understands that. China isn’t pausing. China isn’t hesitating. China is building. While America debates moratoriums, Beijing is pouring concrete. Every unnecessary delay here gives China another opportunity to close the gap.

Then there are the jobs that will be created.

Mike Rowe recently pointed out that experienced electricians working on data center construction projects can earn as much as $260,000 a year without a four-year degree. His foundation has partnered with Meta to launch a $115 million workforce academy designed to prepare Americans for exactly these careers while guaranteeing jobs for graduates.

Those are the kinds of blue-collar jobs conservatives usually celebrate. So why are we making it harder for those jobs to come to Alabama?

We’ve seen this movie before. More than thirty years ago, Mercedes-Benz announced it was coming to Vance. There were skeptics then, too.

They worried about growth. They complained about the infrastructure. They were afraid of change. Imagine if Vance had imposed a moratorium on automobile plants in 1993.

No Mercedes. No Honda. No Hyundai. No Mazda Toyota. No automotive miracle.

Alabama would have missed out on an anchor industry that fuels a network of suppliers employing thousands of Alabamians. Many people arguing for today’s moratoriums would have opposed yesterday’s economic revolution.

Today’s data centers represent the next chapter of that story.

Google has already invested more than $1 billion in Jackson County. Meta continues expanding in Montgomery. These facilities create construction jobs, skilled trades careers, permanent technical positions and billions of dollars in long-term economic activity.

None of that means communities should abandon common sense.

Local governments have every right to ask tough questions about water usage, electrical infrastructure, traffic, noise, and appropriate locations. Developers should be expected to provide good answers. Local control is a conservative principle.

But there is a difference between putting up guardrails and putting up roadblocks. Moratoriums are roadblocks. Conservatives have spent decades arguing that free enterprise, not government planners, creates prosperity. Either that’s a principle, or it’s a campaign slogan.

If we believe it, we should act like it. Bernie Sanders has spent his career trying to convince Americans that government planners should control our economy.

Alabama Republicans shouldn’t do his dirty work for him.