Would you accept this project where you live?
Today, the Arc of Outrage series returns to the forgotten stakeholder in energy infrastructure projects: the future. Evoking the future offers your best bridge to solutions with today’s skeptical communities.
What you’ll get in this solo episode of Energy Thinks
I have put a lot of Arc of Outrage content out there—from all the ways everything we do is making it worse to why we need to bring the future into the room. You have plenty to work on, and you do not need me to repeat it.
But one idea keeps getting stated as fact without being translated into action: the asymmetry of communities’ perceived drawbacks versus perceived benefits from data center development.
Communities feel they are being asked to take on the risks and downside of an unknown future—AI, data centers, and the infrastructure build-out around them—while nameless, faceless others receive the benefits. In this episode, I think out loud about what that means for project proponents—and the question we all need to ask: Would I accept this project where I live and raise my family?
The company is taking financial and execution risk. But that is not the risk a host community sees. If we are not building communities that kids want to come home to, we are missing the whole opportunity of this endeavor.
Both of these things are true:
- We need communities to host the infrastructure our future requires.
- Those communities experience the concentrated impacts while others receive the broader benefits.
From the episode: Before you ask a community to say yes
Understand the risk you are asking them to take. “Communities feel like they’re taking on all the risks of this unknown future—a future with AI and with data centers and with a bunch of build-outs—and you’re asking them to just take your word for it that it’s going to be better.”
Apply the family test. “What are we asking of this community, and would I accept it in my own? Where I live? Where I’m raising my family?”
Build something worth saying yes to. “We’re going to have to build a sh*t-ton of stuff, and we’re going to have to build it well. That means bringing a tangible value proposition: jobs, resources, engagement, and a real role in shaping the future the project enables.”
A short break—and what’s next
This will be my last episode for a month as I make room for family responsibilities that need my attention. When I return, I’ll be updating you here monthly on the Arc of Outrage—with a focus on where we are on the Arc, what we are learning, and the nuances emerging from work with my clients.
This fall, I’ll also turn this newsletter’s content toward a decade-long passion of mine: energy for development. I want to connect the infrastructure challenges unfolding here at home with the global imperative to give 8 billion people the opportunity to move up the prosperity ladder. The same challenge is at issue: building the energy, industrial, and digital infrastructure that makes a better future possible—and building it well.
Bonus content for this episode
My latest book: The Myth and The Moment
More from my recent Arc of Outrage series:
- “The Arc of Outrage Has Come for Data Centers”
- “Stop Calling It Data Center Misinformation”
- “We Are Nowhere Near Peak Data Center Outrage”
- “The Data Center Arc Isn’t Fracking. It’s Worse.”
- “The Future Has the Right of Way”
- “Everything We Do Is Making It Worse”
- “Arc of Outrage: Bring the Future into the Room”
Recent podcasts:
- “The Ride You Can’t Get Off”
- “Persuasion Won’t Shorten the Arc of Outrage” with Lee Beck
- “Boardwalk’s Scott Hallam on Lessons from a Past Arc of Outrage”
- “The Cost of a No-Build Future”
- “Arc of Outrage: Who Speaks for the Future?”
- “The Arc of Outrage: Why YIMBY + FOMO Is Your New Formula”
Watch on YouTube or listen on Substack.
→ Need support navigating the Arc of Outrage? Reach out to schedule a briefing.
→ If this episode resonated with you, please review Energy Thinks wherever you listen.
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Heart the forgotten stakeholder below!
Until we build again,
Tisha
