Shunning AI data centers will cost the US far more than embracing them. Just look at the UK.

I get it.I really do.

Data centers are noisy.They are ugly.

They can push up electricity prices for customers like you and me, an important point to which I’ll return.They are also being built by big tech companies that have squandered public trust.They promised us that social media would connect the world.

Instead, it harmed our kids and denuded our attention spans.But even with all these concerns, I believe that the decisions in the coming months on data center build-out are among the most consequential in history.I also believe that the right policy, give or take a few caveats, is simple: build, baby, build.To see my reasoning, come to the nation of my birth.The UK.

Terrific place.Big Ben.

Impressive universities like Oxford and Cambridge.The nation that incubated the Industrial Revolution.

What’s not to like?Well, about 25 years ago, the Brits took a decision.We decided to prioritize the environment over construction, nice views over vital infrastructure, tangible local concerns over the distant abstraction of the national interest.You can probably understand the motive if you’ve ever read “The Lord of the Rings.” We wanted to be The Shire, that picturesque idyll of trees, lovely pubs, and hobbits.

In many ways, The Shire was J.R.R.Tolkien’s paean to the England he adored and wished to protect.But you know the old saying about how the road to hell is paved with good intentions? The cumulative effect of these policies has turned the UK not into The Shire but into something more like Mirkwood: cold, poor and increasingly lacking in beauty.The logic is simple.

If you fail to build infrastructure, the local environment may look terrific except for the fact that, over time, you can’t afford to look at it very much.They call it a cost of living crisis, but it’s really a building crisis.

When you keep adding new environmental and other requirements to any project, you create a viper’s nest of vested interests that block, stymie and delay.This...