Armstrong pushes energy buildout as 7 in 10 oppose data centers

Sen. Alan Armstrong, the former Williams Companies executive chairman appointed to fill Oklahoma's Senate seat, is urging Congress to overhaul permitting rules for pipelines and power grids to meet surging electricity demand from AI data centers.

"We have gotten to be the place that just cannot get out of our own way in terms of being able to build critical infrastructure," Armstrong said on Bloomberg This Weekend on June 7. "If we are really going to be an AI power and continue to be the leader in technology, we have got to be able to get power and energy to those AI centers."

Armstrong's push comes as voter anger over data center construction intensifies. A Washington Post poll published May 13 found 7 in 10 Americans oppose data centers being built in their communities. On June 5, voters in Monterey Park, California, backed the nation's first permanent data center ban. In Hilliard, Ohio, residents like Annette Singh say Amazon Web Services' data center construction has replaced farmland and deer with highway noise and construction.

The tension between local opposition and national energy demand creates a policy bottleneck that Armstrong, who cannot run for a full term and serves only until January, said he is uniquely positioned to address. "The loser in that situation is the consumer," he said, arguing that permitting delays drive up energy costs and threaten US competitiveness in AI.

Armstrong, who resigned as executive chairman of Williams Companies — one of the largest US natural gas pipeline operators — to replace Markwayne Mullin after Mullin became Homeland Security secretary, said the US permitting system has become "politicized." He cited multiple agencies with overlapping authority and powerful NGOs that "work hard to bring litigation against large infrastructure" as key obstacles.

The senator pointed to the proposed Western Gateway pipeline, a joint project between Phillips 66 and Kinder Morgan that would transport natural gas liquids from Oklahoma to California markets, as an example of infrastructure held up by regulatory delays. California's refinery count has fallen to 6 or 7 from 43, Armstrong noted, calling the state's gasoline prices — currently averaging about $4.31 a gallon nationally versus $5.03 in June 2022 — "completely self-inflicted."

AI's Growing Appetite for Power

The energy demands of AI data centers are reshaping the US power landscape. Data centers require massive, continuous electricity supply, straining grids already under pressure from electrification and manufacturing reshoring. Armstrong argued that permitting reform must be "all of the above" — covering pipelines, transmission lines, and power generation — without picking winners and losers among energy sources.

"I absolutely believe that we should be pursuing any and all energy options," Armstrong said, while cautioning against subsidies for specific fuel types. The permitting process "ought to be focused around making sure we can build big linear infrastructure in our country to connect supplies with markets."

Political Calculus

Despite widespread voter anger — the Washington Post reported that data center opposition has become a defining issue in midterm battlegrounds like Ohio's 15th Congressional District — most politicians have stopped short of calling for outright bans. Armstrong's approach of streamlining permitting rather than blocking construction represents the dominant political response: accommodate AI's energy needs while addressing local concerns through infrastructure modernization rather than prohibition.

Armstrong acknowledged the political difficulty of long-term infrastructure investment. "Getting long-term infrastructure built, not going to lower gasoline price tomorrow," he said. "It's not an immediate gratification, and therefore it's not a very good mix for politics."

The senator said he is "really encouraged" by bipartisan interest in permitting reform but noted that midterm election dynamics could complicate progress, with the minority party "not really wanting to see any success at times."

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.