FOMO — Fear of Missing Out — has broken out across Arkansas, as elected officials, unelected economic developers, utility companies and their regulators fall all over themselves not to miss out on the AI-fueled data center boom, a competition characterized by hyperbole, secrecy and healthy doses of wishful thinking.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and state legislators are fueling the campaign to turn Arkansas into a mecca for data centers, expanding a sales tax exemption for new projects and allowing Entergy Arkansas and other utilities to bill consumers for the expanded generating capacity needed to satiate data centers’ voracious appetite for electricity.
Yet, amid splashy announcements of projects, sort-of projects and maybe someday projects, and the handing out of tax breaks like a freewheeling Santa on Christmas Eve, some pesky questions are being ignored…