All those Tucsonans who object to data centers are tragically misguided and funded by the Chinese government, according to Republican state Rep. Justin Wilmeth.
His op-ed in the Star on Monday was a bit much for us to just let slide by, especially when it comes from the chair of the Arizona House Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Innovation, who has more sway over how the state regulates data centers than nearly anybody else at the Capitol.
There’s good reason for backers of data centers to be a little nervous right now. The tidal wave of data-center construction is showing signs of stalling out, due in part to people in places like Tucson raising a ruckus. That’s got conservative politicians and columnists spooked, and now they’re raving about a “moral panic” over data centers.
In Wilmeth’s op-ed, which appeared first in the Republic and then in the Star,1 he urges Arizonans to stop demonizing data centers.
He wants to “Make America Visionary Again,” and the best way to do that is to “continue dominating on the artificial intelligence and data center fronts.”
“Yes, yes, light up the torches and grab the pitchforks, I know,” Wilmeth writes. “There is negative noise around both, as people use their phone to complain about technology on X, then use that same phone to buy their next plane flight and deposit a check online and upload hundreds of photos to the cloud. All requiring — you guessed it — data centers to operate.”
He’s correct that we need data centers to run the internet.
But the reason the tech giants are investing $1 trillion in data centers right now, as the Wall Street Journal reported this week, isn’t because everybody’s taking more photos.
The reason you’re seeing all these data centers is that millions of people started using AI tools like ChatGPT over the past few years. Those tools (and all the regular tools you use that are now AI-infused) require an insane amount of computing power, much more than what’s needed to use social media, book flights, deposit checks and upload photos.
As for why people are upset, it’s because those data centers need huge amounts of electricity and water to run rows of servers and keep them cool. When a faceless developer comes to town and tells you they’re going to use all that water and electricity, there’s obviously going to be some questions that need thoughtful, trustworthy answers.
Plus, tech CEOs keep telling everybody AI is going to take their jobs.
Wilmeth’s flippant dismissal of those concerns is kind of like a 15th-century nobleman wondering why everybody is getting upset about forests being cut down to make paper after the printing press was invented. “Why is everyone so upset? Monks have been writing Bibles on parchment for years. Silly peasants.”
And it’s disconcerting to see that type of argument come from the guy who decided a few months ago to advance a bill that would force counties to set aside land for data centers.
Wilmeth goes on to pooh-pooh public outrage over utility companies trying to raise rates, saying residential rates aren’t affected by data centers. There’s a legitimate debate to be had on that point and, as far as we can tell, we won’t know the answer for a while.
Then, he hints that the public outrage in Arizona is linked to China pumping money into activist groups to sabotage America.
“Lastly, the attack on data centers is a focal point in a second Cold War, this time with the Chinese Communist Party,” Wilmeth writes, adding that “activist groups scaring you about data centers received approximately $39 million in foreign funding.”
There’s no question that China and the U.S. are in a high-stakes race to control the AI industry. Each side openly talks about AI as the future of their country’s economy, including President Donald Trump, who has issued executive orders to pave the way for more data centers.
But does Wilmeth seriously think Tucsonans getting pissed off about Project Blue or people protesting another data center at Chandler City Council meetings are psyops by the Chinese government?
That’s absurd, but apparently that’s what he’s trying to get readers to believe.
The Chinese Communist Party apparently is infiltrating the City of Tucson’s Planning and Zoning Commission meetings (not really).
And he’s not alone in thinking the grassroots reaction to data centers is somehow being orchestrated by outside groups.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum made a similar claim on Fox Business last week, which the Washington Post noted didn’t come with any sort of evidence to back it up.
“Any place that’s trying to build data centers is getting bombarded with foreign-directed propaganda to try to block these from being built,” Burgum said. “This is just another attack on the U.S. and our ability to be competitive.”
A Wall Street Journal columnist hit that note pretty hard last month under the headline “The Panic Industry’s New Target.”
Exhibit A in columnist Barton Swaim’s argument was University of Arizona students booing former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s commencement speech after Schmidt basically told the students they should embrace working for AI.
“(T)he people showing up at county council meetings to protest the construction of a data center didn’t for the most part come by their convictions the old-fashioned way, by reading and thought,” Swaim claims, blaming the Google billionaire for funding nonprofits that “taught a generation of liberal-minded Americans to live in fear of” climate change.
Turning of the tide?
Meanwhile, the ambitious plan to build massive data centers throughout the country may be withering on the vine.
Investors and executives are still pouring billions of dollars into data centers. The biggest tech companies, like Microsoft and Amazon, put $410 billion into data centers last year, and they’re expected to invest $670 billion by the end of this year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
But most of those data centers aren’t actually getting built.
JPMorgan analysts found that construction on two-thirds of the data-center capacity that supposedly would be ready by next year either hasn’t started yet or is already delayed by supply-chain backlogs, local permitting fights and a struggle to find enough electricity to power the data centers.
The biggest data center project in the country would have covered 40,000 acres in Utah, but pressure from activists forced the owner to cut its size in half.
Just like we saw with AI-related legislation proposed in Arizona this year, the politics of data centers is breaking down roughly like this: Republicans want to make it easier to build them; Democrats want to pump the brakes.
Despite all that money and backing from Silicon Valley, the “pump the brakes” side is winning the public debate, which might be why Republican politicians like Wilmeth are getting nervous about losing out on the jobs and business that data centers bring.
Earlier this week, 86% of voters in Monterey Park, a city of about 60,000 people outside Los Angeles, decided they wanted their city to be the first in the country to permanently ban data centers.
New York is trying to do something similar at the state level. Lawmakers there are poised to approve a one-year moratorium on new data centers, the New York Times reports.
Closer to home, the City of Tucson is nearing the end of its public comment period for new regulations. Soon, the city will have rules aimed explicitly at large-scale data centers for the first time ever.
And after the thrashing that local politicians took for approving Project Blue, you can bet those rules won’t be friendly to data centers.
But, as Wilmeth’s op-ed shows, while the backlash to data centers evolves from protests to policies, the backlash to the backlash keeps growing.
An insider’s take: The Tucson Sentinel’s Blake Morlock writes about his time serving as a staffer for Tucson’s favorite Democrat-turned-Republican, Rodney Glassman. Plenty of Tucsonans have their own stories of working alongside Rodney, but Morlock paints him as an opportunist willing to do anything to score political points — specifically wondering what a hypothetical AG Glassman would do on Election Day if Democrats won big in 2028. He also noted that Glassman is the modern-day Joe Sweeney, a legendary local perennial candidate who suffered crushing losses at the ballot box.
“I just don’t see him doing anything other than seizing on an opportunity to become a MAGA superstar and refuse to endorse a Democratic victory in the presidential race,” Morlock writes.
Strike two: The union representing Sun Tran bus drivers will vote on Sunday whether to strike amid what they call unsafe conditions and a string of attacks on drivers and passengers, the Arizona Daily Star’s Griffin Salkowski reports. The union is currently renegotiating it’s contract ahead of its expiration at the end of the month, and has long been critical of safety issues they say have been caused by fare-free transit in Tucson. The last time Tucson bus drivers went on strike was 2015, which lasted more than a month and was spurred by pay and safety complaints. That strike lasted 42 days.
Recycling plant stalled: The controversial Aluminum Dynamics recycling plant in Benson might be dead on arrival, the Herald/Review’s Terri Jo Neff reports. Potential legal action from Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has had a chilling effect on plans for the plant, and the local rumor mill is predicting the company is going to give up on the project altogether.
Not looking good: Congressional District 7 Republican candidate Daniel Butierez told the “857 Tucson” podcast that the campaign to recall Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has collected approximately 15,000 signatures. That’s a far cry from the overall goal of 120,000 signatures, which he and his team have about a month left to gather before the July 10 deadline.
Water is getting expensive: Oro Valley residents are going to pay a little more for every shower they take, toilet they flush or load of laundry they do, KVOA’s Jillian Bartsch reports. The Oro Valley Town Council approved an increase in the town’s water rate, amounting to about $2 more each month for the average resident.
A little shorter, but still pretty big: The University of Arizona’s new student housing project will be just nine stories tall, instead of 19 stories as initially planned, Sierra Blaser reports for the Arizona Daily Star. The complex at the corner of Speedway and Campbell will have about 1,300 beds and cost around $250 million.
“We have really never been that concerned about the size, even when they said it was going to be 19 stories,” Mike Attwood, president of the local neighborhood association, said. “I think some people might have even felt a little bit of pride to have had such a tall building in our neighborhood, something pretty unique in Tucson.”
If you’re considering tearing down those obnoxious political signs that are popping up around your neighborhood, be warned: Trail cams and AirTags are cheap as hell these days.
Chris King, a Republican candidate for the state Senate in the Tucson area's Legislative District 17, had quite a few of his signs stolen recently.
So he set up a little sting by stuffing an AirTag in a sign and placing a trail cam nearby.
This was actually the second time that same sign was stolen, King told us. The first time, the trail cam wasn’t working, and the AirTag traced the sign to a dumpster, where he retrieved it.
His political consultant, Chris Baker, tells us that police used the AirTag to track the man in this video to his house and cite him for sign theft — and for stealing the AirTag inside it.
1 The Star carrying the Republic’s op-eds and news content is a whole other issue that we won’t get into today.