A divided America agrees on one thing: most folks don’t want new data centers in their communities. But do data centers live up to their sour reputation as water and electricity gluttons? Or are they, in fact, a 21st-century version of the automobile – an innovation deemed dangerous at first, but eventually a means to community advancement and prosperity? Steven Koonin, the Hoover Institution’s Edward Teller Senior Fellow and an energy policy expert, discusses what’s behind data-center NIMBYism and whether America will rise to the challenge of a greater demand for electricity in the near future as artificial intelligence and the needs of an increasingly information-intensive society and economy continue to reshape the nation’s landscape. Also discussed: the US Energy Department’s embrace of a “golden age of nuclear energy” (speaking of technology that once spawned NIMBY discontent), an evolving climate change debate (why does the UN bother to celebrate “climate weeks”?) and an emergency-mode California bracing for an El Niño event that’s expected to submerge vast portions of the Golden State in the coming months.
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The dramatic rise of domestic patent publications by Chinese inventors has raised questions about the extent of Chinese innovations. This column uses a newly assembled dataset of Chinese patents to understand the Chinese innovative ecosystem.
October 30, 2026
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Writing in this magazine a year ago, we compared Russia’s oil-and-gas industry to a dinosaur, “big, rapacious, and dying off.” Energy sanctions against Russia and the country’s own missteps in managing its energy industry during its war against Ukraine were delivering a downfall that, we wrote, “the U.S. has been trying to make…happen for decades.”
October 27, 2026
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On July 5 the Northwest Chinese Baptist Church in Phoenix opened its weekly Mandarin service with a verse from the Old Testament. A pianist, a guitarist and a drummer prepared to lead the 100 congregants in song.
October 23, 2026
