Kansas governor candidate Holscher wants state to put data centers on hold | Opinion

For years now, Big Tech leaders have been proclaiming that artificial intelligence is the future and it’s here to stay.

States, cities, and towns across America have been quick to clear a path for the giant data centers that power this new technology, afraid that the future will pass them by.

Now, with more than 4,000 data centers constructed nationwide and demand predicted to triple by 2030, and with the promised public benefits too often failing to materialize, people are beginning to ask: is this really good policy?

Like many, I too was hopeful at the beginning of the data center boom and even voted to support these developments in the past.

But now that we’re learning how these companies are draining and contaminating our water supply, driving up our electricity costs, and ignoring our communities’ voices, it’s time to press the pause button.

I’m calling for Kansas to implement a statewide moratorium on new data center construction until we have guardrails in place to protect affordability, shield families from paying higher energy bills, maintain clean and accessible drinking water, guarantee local jobs, and ensure communities get their fair share and have a real voice in decisions that affect them.

I know my feelings are widely shared. The concern is national, with 70% of people across the country opposing constructing data centers nearby, and half of those in opposition pointing directly to negative effects on public resources, like excess water usage. This issue brings people together across neighborhoods, political parties, and socioeconomic groups.

As a Kansas state legislator and candidate for Governor, I’ve visited dozens of cities and towns across our state.

Almost everywhere, the people I talk to are increasingly worried about massive data center developments in their backyards. And I mean massive: the new “hyperscale” data center in De Soto is planned to cover 1.14 million square feet — that’s twenty football fields.

For too long, Big Tech billionaires and the politicians enabling them have largely been turning a blind eye to public feedback, treating it as an inconvenience rather than a mandate, and squeezing communities who aren’t seeing their fair share of benefits. It’s time for the people to insist on being heard, and for our leaders to address the opportunities and risks in a thoughtful way.

A moratorium is not a “no” to growth.

Kansas wants investment. We want jobs, progress, and innovation. But we want it on our terms, with the guarantee that our people will be protected and that the benefits will flow to all of us, not just the tech billionaires.

Across the country, leaders who trust in Big Tech’s promises have green-lighted data centers with good intentions, but those promises don’t always come true.

Facilities like these can house tens or hundreds of thousands of computer servers requiring tremendous levels of electricity and consuming millions of gallons of precious water per day, driving up energy prices for everyday people and delivering relatively few new jobs.

The tax revenue gets eaten up by the incentives that lured the project in. And the costs end up falling on local utility customers, who pay out of pocket to help some of the world’s biggest tech companies scale up their profits while being left to clean up the consequences on their own.

We’re seeing this unfold in data center-heavy states like Maryland and Virginia, where household power bills are spiking as data center demand on the grid skyrockets, or in Oregon, where these facilities are polluting the local water supply and making people sick.

Let’s look at Pennsylvania, another cautionary tale. Once aspiring to be America’s AI growth engine, the state is now losing out on $2 billion in revenue thanks to the corporate tax breaks that lured data centers in.

Families are paying higher energy bills. Communities are raising the alarm about immense construction projects moving forward without public input. And regulations that should have been implemented from the start are now needed to rein in Big Tech’s reach and prevent more broken promises from corporate interests.

Tech billionaires have now set their sights on Kansas, and it’s imperative that we not make the same mistakes other states have. If we do things right, we can play a central role in powering the American economy and ushering in a new era of growth throughout Kansas without leaving families and small business owners responsible for subsidizing trillion-dollar tech companies and without opening the door to water scarcity in our communities.

Kansans are starting to show up in huge numbers to push back. They feel their voices have been ignored — and in too many cases, they’re right. That needs to end.

If we move forward as is, it’s only the billionaires who stand to profit, while working Kansans get left behind. We’re prepared to take on the next frontier of growth, but if Big Tech wants to build here, we must have a say in where and how.

A statewide moratorium — put in place until we establish clear policy to protect everyday people from footing the bill, secure local water resources, ensure workforce protections and economic benefits, guarantee transparency, and commit to reinvesting benefits back into communities — is the least we deserve, and I’m going to fight for it.

It’s time for Kansans to make our choice.

We can say yes to the promise of growth, without any guarantees and without asking anything in return, and end up like Pennsylvania — paying the bill on a bad bargain for years. Or we can set the standard for responsible, deliberate progress that ensures all of us benefit from this growth and puts real power into the hands of the people.

I know which side I’m on.