Chris Wright, the US energy secretary, told supporters of data centers to push back on critics citing environmental harm and job losses, arguing the benefits are larger than the drawbacks and warning that fear-driven tactics will fail. The debate is unfolding
For Chris Wright, the debate over data centers has become personal enough to draw a line to the past. Speaking at an Amazon Web Services conference on Tuesday, the US energy secretary said many concerns about data centers are real—but “overblown.”
Wright urged supporters of data centers to push back on critics whose objections center on environmental concerns and job losses. “The pluses are way bigger than the minuses,” he said. “So please keep driving hard, keep driving these improvements in our country.”
He framed the core argument around resources. Wright said more data centers are the path to lower-cost electricity. and he argued that water consumption is “tiny” compared to the benefits. “There’s probably no higher value use of water. full stop. than there is water for these data centers. ” he said.
The energy secretary also compared today’s data-center fight to the anti-fracking campaign from 15 years ago. Wright said the same fear-inducing tactics are being used to worry people. “Right now in the polls, they’re winning. They cannot win, and they will not win,” Wright said. “We will win this argument, just as we did with fracking.”.
The politics around that confidence are already visible in public opinion. A Gallup survey of 1,000 adults in the US published in May found that seven in 10 respondents opposed constructing data centers for AI in their local area. Nearly half said they were “strongly opposed” to construction.
At the same time, construction has surged. By the end of last year, more than 1,400 data centers had been built or approved for build outs. The growth has been increasingly divisive, with critics pointing to impacts on the environment—particularly water and energy use.
Business Insider’s reporting last year described how the rapid buildout of AI-driven data centers is reshaping local communities. It cited large-scale campuses placing heavy demands on water supplies in drought-prone regions and using diesel generators that harm air quality. The reporting also said communities neighboring these data centers struggle to understand the scale and scope of the project because of opaque ownership structures.
Not everyone in the business world disputes those pressures. Canadian entrepreneur turned TV personality Kevin O’Leary is among the business leaders vocally supporting data centers. He has doubled down on his investments in this sector and has tried to change public perception. arguing that data centers are critical for the AI economy.
“We’re in a global competition, an economic competition, a military competition, and certainly a technological competition,” O’Leary told Business Insider earlier this month. “We’ve got to keep our chops because we have led the world in this economy for 250 years.”
Taken together. Wright’s remarks land at the intersection of two realities that are moving at different speeds: political momentum for opponents in polls. and a construction pipeline already expanding quickly across the country. For communities facing the day-to-day costs—water stress, air-quality concerns, and confusion over ownership—the public argument isn’t abstract. It’s tied to what gets built, where, and how fast.
data centers Chris Wright US energy secretary Amazon Web Services AI Gallup survey water usage electricity diesel generators fracking comparison Kevin O'Leary construction approvals environmental concerns job losses