Robert Maginnis -WashingtonStand.com
Living in Northern Virginia, I watch neighbors attend public meetings, plant yard signs, and line up at zoning hearings to contest new data centers. Their concerns are legitimate. Nobody wants industrial buildings replacing farmland, transmission towers marching across the landscape, or higher electric bills from cooling equipment humming a quarter mile from a bedroom window.
I understand those concerns. I share some of them.
But something troubles me as I listen to these debates. Many of the same Americans who oppose the infrastructure this technology race requires also want the benefits of technological leadership, economic strength, and independence from communist China. That tension points to a larger question — one Christians should reckon with honestly.
Are we willing to look past immediate self-interest and accept the costs this moment demands?
That question is not really about data centers.
It is about stewardship.
The Scale of What Is Coming
The numbers are not speculative. A Goldman Sachs Research report projects U.S. data center power demand will climb from 31 gigawatts in 2025 to 66 gigawatts in 2027 — more than double in two years. Data centers already consume 6% of the national electricity supply. Annual global spending on data center construction is approaching $1 trillion, with up to $700 billion anticipated in the United States alone in 2026.
The consequences are acute here in Northern Virginia, home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers. Data centers accounted for 40% of Virginia’s total electricity consumption in 2024. Three-quarters of Virginia voters blame data centers for rising utility bills. Dominion Energy’s grid was strained so badly in July 2024 that a single voltage fluctuation triggered the simultaneous disconnection of 60 data centers. PJM, the regional grid operator, warns that reserve margins could drop to 8% by 2028 — a level at which reliability cannot be guaranteed.
Those are real problems that deserve real engagement. But the harder question sits on the other side of the ledger.