Build Where They Comply, Liquidate Where They Don't

Last summer the Department of Energy chose four federal sites to host the country's AI data centers: Idaho National Laboratory, Oak Ridge in Tennessee, Savannah River in South Carolina, and Paducah in Kentucky. All four sit in states with Republican governors ^[1]. This summer the largest of them, a $100 billion project on federal land in Kentucky, was announced without the state's Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, ever being briefed; the advocate in the room was Republican congressman Andy Barr ^[2]. The map makes the case. But the president has also made the case out loud, about the other half of the system.

They can sue us and maybe they’ll win, but we’re not giving money to sanctuary cities anymore. — Donald Trump

That is the second track. While the administration fast-tracks data centers on federal land in states that cooperate, it freezes, revokes, and redirects money from states that don't. Track one runs on speed. The executive order designating data centers as critical national security infrastructure came with streamlined environmental reviews on federal land ^[1]. The AI Action Plan grants categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act and eases Clean Water Act oversight to clear the way for construction ^[3]. The power behind these sites is mostly natural gas ^[1]. Track two runs the other way. The Army Corps of Engineers froze $11 billion in projects, and OMB Director Russell Vought said what the freeze was for.

The Democrat shutdown has drained the Army Corps of Engineers' ability to manage billions of dollars in projects. — Russell Vought

FEMA denied $26.5 million in flood aid to Wisconsin and turned down Michigan's appeal after an ice storm that caused $150 million in damage ^[4]. The administration has held up $15 billion in Los Angeles fire recovery aid, the longest such delay in modern history ^[5]. The Transportation Department revoked bike lane grants in Alabama and Tennessee, labeling cycling infrastructure "DEI bike lanes" ^[6]. Hydrogen hub funding for California and the Pacific Northwest was paused ^[7]. SNAP enrollment fell 13 percent as the cuts shifted costs onto the states ^[8]. The targeting is not absolute — the administration has approved disaster declarations for Washington and Oregon ^[9]. But emergency response is not the same as investment. The money that builds things runs one direction. The hinge is the environmental law. The NEPA categorical exclusions and Clean Water Act easings that clear the way for data centers are the same statutes whose enforcement Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is slow-walking for wind and solar through new "political reviews" ^[10]. The Department of Energy cancelled $27 billion in clean energy projects and redirected its loan authority toward natural gas, nuclear, and coal ^[10]. None of this is hidden. Trump said the shutdown handed him something.

I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. — Donald Trump

Vought has testified under oath about the Impoundment Control Act, the 1974 law that requires the president to spend what Congress appropriates.

The president ran on the notion that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional. I agree with that. — Russell T Vought

The mechanism is declared, not discovered. The two-track system is not a contradiction in the administration's logic. It is the logic. Build where they comply, liquidate where they don't.