Energy communications and public affairs, @FTIConsulting. @newtgingrich and @AEI alum. Jayhawk. Opinions are my own. Retweets are not endorsements.
Arlington, VA
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Attacks on data centers are dominating headlines, ranging from run of the mill environmental claims to obscure and even bizarre issues.
The broader dynamic should look familiar, because a very similar playbook was used against fracking.
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Put differently: Will opposition to data centers prevent working families from getting ahead?
The blue-collar AI job market is booming. Will data center backlash make it go bust? cnbc.com/2026/09/26/blue-col…
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Steve Everley retweeted
In late 2022, I spent a few weeks in Taiwan, visiting the island's never-completed nuclear plant, the remote site of a radioactive waste controversy, and the new fossil fuel infrastructure taking the place of the reactors the government was shutting down.
I came away with the longest story I've ever published, one where I tried to unspool what seemed to me like the obvious risk the nuclear phaseout policy posed to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's desire to maintain Taiwan's de facto independence.
It's surprising that this realization in Taipei took this long.
☢️ HUGE NUCLEAR POWER REVERSAL ☢️
Taiwan approved a preliminary plan to restart an idled atomic power plant, marking a reversal of the ruling party’s anti-nuclear stance. It closed its last reactor last year
The earliest the plant may resume is 2028
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Steve Everley retweeted
🚨As @saeverley correctly captures in the must-read thread below, the claims spread by billionaire NGO-funded protesters and their captive legacy media platforms about the @SpaceXAIMemphis data center for months have now been predictably proven false.
The opponents claimed the data center was one of the top pollution sources in the Memphis area. But the actual data proves it does not rank in the Top 10, or the Top 20, or even among the Top 25 local pollution sources.
This is how the rancid #AI #datacenter astroturf opposition works:
- Create false narratives to alarm the public.
- Co-opt media support platforms to amplify the narratives based on nothing but the narrative.
- Harras the developers until they hopefully give up and move on - which @SpaceXAI has properly refused to do.
When the truth emerges supported by real data, they scurry off to harass their next ripe target.
Rinse and repeat and hope the next community falls for the same hoax.
Stop falling for it, people.
For more than a year, anti-data center folks have blasted a @SpaceXAIMemphis facility as a threat to human health.
National media has taken their cue.
Turns out, the project doesn't rank in the top 5 for pollution in the county.
Not even the top 10.
Not even the top 25.
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For more than a year, anti-data center folks have blasted a @SpaceXAIMemphis facility as a threat to human health.
National media has taken their cue.
Turns out, the project doesn't rank in the top 5 for pollution in the county.
Not even the top 10.
Not even the top 25.
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John Connor sent data centers back in time to save people from heart attacks.
I've been a cardiologist for 25+ years. The last 90 days changed medicine more than the last decade, and almost nobody noticed. Here are the 10 biggest AI breakthroughs, and why you should be excited, not afraid 🧵
1/ 37,000 AI agents. One "virtual biotech." It analyzed thousands of trials, figured out which drug targets actually work in humans, and independently proposed a lung cancer strategy that a major pharma company later pursued. AI isn't a search engine anymore. It's a co-scientist.
2/ The first drug discovered AND designed entirely by AI (Insilico's rentosertib) just entered Phase 3. In patients, it reversed biological age by 3–6 years across six different aging clocks. Read that again!
3/ As a cardiologist, this one gives me chills. The FDA authorized "Queen of Hearts," an AI that reads a standard ECG and catches heart attacks, including the hidden ones doctors miss. 2x the sensitivity. Far fewer false alarms. It pages the cardiology team itself. In a heart attack, minutes are muscle.
4/ EchoNext spots 6 types of hidden structural heart disease from a cheap, 10-second ECG, and it does it better than cardiologists. It already flagged a patient who went on to get a heart transplant. Screening that used to need an echo lab now needs a test any clinic can run.
5/ UpDoc is the first FDA-cleared AI that talks directly to patients. It checks in between visits, adjusts insulin within limits the doctor sets, and documents everything in the chart. Chronic disease no longer has to wait for your next appointment.
6/ An autonomous AI agent called MIRA, with full access to medical records, went head-to-head with ER physicians on hundreds of real cases.
AI: 87.8% correct
Doctors: 78.1%
It ordered the tests, read the results, and wrote the plan.
7/ Google released MedGemma 1.5 and MedASR, open medical AI for imaging and clinical speech that anyone can build on. Every hospital. Every researcher. Every country. Open models mean medicine moves at internet speed.
8/ The FDA authorized Aletta, the first robot that draws blood on its own. It gets the vein on the first stick 94–95% of the time, even hard veins. One technician supervises three robots. The most common procedure in medicine just got automated.
9/ UCLA's SLIViT matches specialists on 3D MRI, CT, ultrasound, and retinal scans, and it's 5,000x faster. It isn't a new model for every organ. One architecture reads them all.
10/ The FDA has now authorized 1,600+ AI medical devices. They cover radiology, cardiology, and surgery, including real-time AI that checks breast cancer margins while the patient is still on the table. This isn't coming. It's here.
What this means to you:
→ Drugs that took 10–15 years are showing human results in a fraction of the time
→ Heart attacks get caught on a cheap ECG, not after a collapse
→ Doctors get hours back
→ Patients get answers between visits
→ Aging itself is becoming treatable
This isn't "AI will replace your doctor." It's AI finally becoming good enough that medicine starts to compound. The next 18 months will feel different.
Bookmark this. We're early. Stay positive!!!
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Steve Everley retweeted
The AI build-out is on track to become the biggest economic bet in U.S. history, dwarfing the investments made to fund other huge U.S. infrastructure projects such as the railroads, the highway system and the plumbing for the internet. on.wsj.com/3T7NfrY
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"We urge you to reject export controls that would ultimately raise prices, undermine domestic production, and risk upending global supply chains at the worst possible time."
28 Free-Market Groups Urge President Trump Not to Ban Diesel Exports: ntu.org/publications/detail/…
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"The irony of a US diesel export ban is that it would likely increase costs for American consumers," Gelder said.
reuters.com/legal/litigation…
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Steve Everley retweeted
"Voluntary" 😉
WHITE HOUSE SEEKS VOLUNTARY DIESEL EXPORT CURBS
Energy Secretary Chris Wright has contacted major U.S. refiners about voluntarily reducing diesel exports, Reuters reports.
The administration is searching for an alternative to an outright export ban as diesel prices hover around $6.52 per gallon and inventories remain tight.
Refiners have limited enthusiasm, warning restrictions could force production cuts and ultimately push gasoline prices higher.
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Steve Everley retweeted
New: Banning Diesel Exports is Bad Policy and Bad Politics
@TomJPyle: "If you ban diesel exports from the Gulf Coast, refiners there will still have very few avenues to get their product to market (even with the Jones Act waiver). As these barrels stack up, the logical thing for them to do is start catching up on long-deferred maintenance at their facilities. That means overall production will fall, essentially nullifying the perceived supply-increase benefits of an export ban." americanenergyalliance.org/2…
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Steve Everley retweeted
This framing is wrong, presents a false choice, and is indefensible when looking at global emissions.
The choice isn't onsite generation OR transmission/central generation. Both can and are happening together. And they need to.
And "onsite" and "off-grid" are not the synonyms. A facility can use onsite gas while connected to the electric grid. In fact, doing both makes the grid more flexible.
The REAL issue is the counterfactual: Does onsite generation allow that new semiconductor fab, battery plant, solar manufacturer, or data center to get built in the United States years sooner than it would otherwise.
The answer is yes. And if that's the case, the comparison on emissions can't stop at the emissions rate of onsite gas versus the average U.S. grid. Becuase the alternative is delayed or foregone U.S. investment, or investment in or shifting compute to another country.
China is still generating 55% of it's electricity from coal. IEA says that 70% of Chinese data center energy currently comes from coal, and that coal will be the largest source of energy for new data centers in China.
The U.S. is in the midst of an extradinary build-out of manufacturing, including solar, batteries, semiconductors, data centers, and so much more.
So let's build the onsite gas *and* transmission. Build new gas, nuclear, solar, wind, batteries. Build the new pipelines and gas storage.
But let's not treat onsite gas as the enemy of grid expansion. Indeed, onsite gas is going to facilitate it, not limit.
The relevant emissions question isn't simply “How many tons does this gas unit emit?” The right question is “What happens to investment, production and global emissions if we prevent or delay this U.S. project?”
That's the right frame, and one that actually matters for emissions.
So let's get to building.
People need to understand that the biggest threat to emissions right now is off grid, inefficient gas. Beyond the tremendous general emissions upside of transmission buildout, if it means more grid-connected gas that is anywhere from like 20-70% fewer emissions than status quo.
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But other than that, it's a FANTASTIC idea
"Analyst: Diesel export ban could cause higher gasoline prices, global recession"
bizjournals.com/houston/news…
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Steve Everley retweeted
Running list of conservative backlash to floated Diesel Export Ban
atr.org/conservative-backlas…
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Steve Everley retweeted
NEWS: A White House official tells Reuters that the Poltico report that that the administration is preparing for a 90-day diesel export ban is not accurate. Earlier today, Wright said the administration is looking at a "simpler, voluntary, cooperative fashion, without using blunt instruments that would reduce refining throughput."
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“The point is this: even President Biden, who paused LNG exports in the run-up to a political election, passed on a diesel export ban.” - @TomJPyle
americanenergyalliance.org/2…
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And U.S. natgas prices remain flat.
US LNG exports on track to increase by 17 million tons in 9M 2026, year-on-year. Much needed supply increase in US and elsewhere (Canada, Nigeria, Russia, Malaysia) nearly offset declines in Qatar. Global balance could have been very different. #LNG
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Steve Everley retweeted
"A run cut of this magnitude [of diesel production due to an export ban] would inevitably lower the supply of gasoline and jet fuel, raising the prices of these fuels."
S&P analysis: Banning diesel exports would raise gasoline prices.
And jet fuel prices would also increase.
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