by James A. Bacon

The Town Council of Warrenton has big regrets after issuing a special-use permit allowing Amazon to build a data center in the town. Council finds itself embroiled in litigation from a citizen lawsuit to block the Amazon project as well as a FOIA request to release thousands of emails and documents, according to the Fauquier Times.

Council fired its old town counsel and hired former state senator Chap Petersen, an old-school New Deal Democrat who was ousted by the new generation of “progressive” Democrats. Judging by his recent autobiography, “Rebel,” this new role is just right for Petersen, who, though appalled by the progressives’ woke brand of “social justice,” still enjoys standing up for the little guy…. especially when the big guy is Dominion Energy.

It is fascinating to watch the politics of data centers unfold. There is nothing inherently pro-Republican or pro-Democrat about building Artificial Intelligence-enabling data centers. But the tribalistic instincts driving polarization in our society seem to be pushing the parties into opposite camps.

Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity. A projected surge of demand for electricity in Virginia threatens to derail the push toward a zero-carbon electric grid. Dominion, which once endorsed that goal, now says it will need to build natural gas plants to offset the intermittency of wind and solar power. Therefore, progressives are aligning with the anti-data center protesters.

With big data-center users Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg getting chummy with President Donald Trump, opposition to data centers offers Virginia progressives a threefer — they can support net zero and the fight against global warming, stick it to the corruptocrats at Dominion Energy, and strike a blow against the new tech-bro Trump-loving oligarchy. I fully expect Democrats to unify in their detestation of these new hate objects.

Then, as each and every action has an equal or opposite reaction, we can count on Republicans to line up in favor of data centers. After excoriating Silicon Valley tech-bros for supporting progressive causes for so long, Republicans love them now that they love Trump. All the better if surging demand for data centers forces Democrats to eat crow over their net-zero fantasies.

As partisan alignment on the data-center issue hardens, expect even more foolishness. If “progressives” decide they must oppose data centers, the next logically illogical step is to declare themselves against the source of data-center demand, which is Artificial Intelligence. Conservatives will gravitate in the opposite direction. The tribal instinct will overwhelm any rational consideration of the pros and cons of AI.