By Stephen Smoot
West Virginia coal serves as a key component of an international Great Power’s plans for economic prosperity and global financial and technological dominance – but that country is not the United States.
In a recent presentation to economic development officials in Pendleton and Grant counties, Mark Bayliss, a member of the Federal Communications Commission advisory council and President of the West Virginia Broadband co-op shared serious concerns about the future of digital technology in the United States and how it is tied to Red China’s push for global dominance.
Bayliss described a growing problem coming in the future as the United States strays farther and father from an energy policy designed to generate sufficient power for the needs of the public, government, and business.
He explained the the growth of artificial intelligence and other digital capabilities will take a monumental amount of power generation. Currently, 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic runs through centers in Ashburn, Virginia, many near Dulles International Airport.
The dynamic of the global internet economy is complex. The United States has three percent of the world’s active internet users, a level described by Bayliss as “insignificant.”. A much higher percentage of people in more populated East and Central Asian countries use the internet more often. Companies that run the undersea cables that contain the fiber optic used by the internet make more money the longer the distance signals have to travel.
One of the only nations in the world that generates enough power to run the data centers and other digital infrastructure is the United States. Companies make money by putting the infrastructure in the United States where there is less use and transmitting signals to East Asia, which has areas of much more intensive use.
Bayliss told the attendees that “keeping the United States ahead in data center operations is absolutely critical.” As long as the United States can keep generating enough energy to stay ahead of data center and other needs, it can remain comfortably ahead of Red China’s own efforts.
He explained that data centers generate wealth for host countries in the same way as oil and gas helped nations that developed those resources after World War II. These represent economic development engines and a step toward global economic dominance for any nation able to provide power and profit. Having the bulk of these gives a country a tremendous advantage in leading the world marketplace
Since 2004 an energy production trend has developed. Bayliss shared that Red China embarked on an ambitious plan to become the top power producer in the world. At the time, they trailed far behind the United States, producing on the same level as Great Britain. Over two decades, Red China expanded its power production in the most efficient areas, mostly coal and natural gas.
That is where West Virginia coal enters the equation. Coal mined here used to power America and drive the steel industry. Now it does the same for Red China. But why?
About the same time, Western scientists started ringing the tocsin on the issue of global warming, which they later called climate change when the warming did not occur as predicted. Western governments have pushed for various levels of “climate change” policies to restrict energy and other product development. This has created havoc in both politics and the economy while hamstringing energy production to the levels of two decades ago.
Also as the power needs of the digital economy continue to explode, Western governments have chosen to expand the burdens on the grid with electric vehicle mandates just as they have also moved against coal and natural gas in favor of wind and solar. Neither of the latter set have even close to the capability to handle the demands expected of it in the next few decades.
As the West has slowed down its development, Red China has accelerated theirs. They have surpassed the United States in production of energy by building tremendous numbers of plants. By 2023, China had over 1,140 coal fired power plants, the most in the world.
The United States, Europe, and Japan must rise to meet this challenge or soon feel the weight of a powerful Chinese economy expand its ability to project its might.
The Western embrace of the climate change theory has created changes in the global balance of economic power based upon incomplete science. A number of factors affect the climate on the Earth, including fluctuations in solar energy output. In recent years, scientists have learned that even the gravitational fields of nearby planets have an effect. Innumerable variables affect the climate of the planet and many likely still lie outside the awareness of science.
Furthermore, connections between government, science, and money from areas that would benefit from policy changes have rarely provided good results. These combinations led to the obesity and opioid crises, just to name two examples.
In short, the notion that human beings have decisive impacts on climate has never been proven and likely cannot be. Yet many in government wish to proceed as if it’s a proven fact rather than an unprovable theory.
While the West stifles its own capacity, Red China continues to move rapidly ahead. Future generations will certainly see consequences of Western inaction.