Alex Gimarc: Opponents of progress are looking for reasons to hate data centers

By ALEX GIMARC

Aug. 5, 2026 – I listened to Amy Demboski’s morning show on KVNT on Monday. She held her Monday morning conversation with Rep. Kevin McCabe of Big Lake, who opined on a variety of topics including the opportunity presented with a possible data center on the North Slope. He was shortly followed by one of his opponents, Mike Alexander, who went on to trash datacenters as too dangerous to even consider.

That got me to thinking (always a dangerous exercise) about data centers and the greater problem we seem to have gotten ourselves into here in Alaska by adopting the leftist, Democrat world view of opposing all things new rather than figuring out how to correctly do something new.

As this is a two-part question, I will address the larger point of new stuff first and scope it down to datacenters.

Consider, if you will, the multiple attempts Gov. Mike Dunleavy made over the years to increase revenue to the state while in office, all of which were rejected out of hand, starting with casinos (apparently Native casinos with all the expected corruption like Eklutna Tribal’s cozy relationships with the Anchorage Assembly are far more acceptable).  Then move on to Dunleavy’s fish farming proposal,  which was a mirror of the current Department of Fish and Game stocking program for rainbows into Southcentral and Interior lakes.

The final rejected proposal was the gasline, rejected initially by Nurse Sen. Cathy Giessel because it would bring prostitution into the state.

What rot. If you don’t want to do something, there are a thousand reasons not to do so, as demonstrated by legislative Democrats over the last six years.

With every single proposal, the reaction was reasons not to embrace the new opportunity rather than any sort of cost-benefit analysis on what the State would gain compared with costs should we screw up and do it wrong.

It looks like the next proposal up is the notion of putting a large caliber data center(s) on the North Slope and power it with natural gas from the Prudhoe Bay oil patch.  Potential benefit to the State is a couple billion dollars revenue a year.  Great, right?

Not so fast, as Republican candidate Alexander for House District 30 is concerned about organic gunk growing in the pipes which requires Alaska to reject the concept out of hand.

Are you freaking serious?

What is a data center?  It is a large building full of computers that uses water and power to do whatever it is contracted to do.  Its output is data, transmitted via connections (fiber or Starlink).  Its consumables are energy, water and equipment.  Its waste products are water and heat.  Like all Double Plus Good renewable energy installations, it does have a large physical footprint.

Do the opponents of this even know that we currently have multiple large footprint buildings on the Slope that use water and power to output product?  They are called Gathering Centers, huge installations that gather the output from multiple wells, separate crude from water and natural gas, treat the output, do something with the products removed, and prepare the crude for shipment down the TAPS pipeline.

And with all this industrial operation going on, preparing a million barrels of crude a day to be shipped down TAPS, these clowns are worried about possible organic gunk in internal water lines in a new facility?  We have had datacenters in the US for over a generation.  Don’t you think that problem is well known or solved yet?  If not, why do you think those of us in the business are any bigger idiots than you are?

It appears to me that they are looking for a reason to oppose the new proposal rather than figuring out how to make it work.

I am not a kneejerk supporter of data centers.  I spent over a decade working in one.  I know what they are.  I know what they do. I know what they need.  In the world of AI, which is what these data centers are supposed to support, I am not convinced that they will not quickly be rendered obsolete by a quantum leap in approach to AI computing, a distributed approach.

Still, even Elon Musk is onboard with the notion that massive computing will be necessary to solve the AI problem.  Who am I to counsel otherwise?  Still, I do.

I hate it when Alaskans act like scared little three-year-old girls.  Or Democrats.  I hate it when Republicans grab onto Chinese Communist Party  anti-data center agitprop. I hate it when putative conservative Republicans climb aboard the democrat NIMBY / BANANA train finding reasons not to do things rather than figuring out how to do something new correctly.

Sooner or later, we Alaskans need to get out of our current defensive crouch and start growing the economy of this state.  

Data centers are our next opportunity.  Should we reject this, how many more will there be?

Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.

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