{"id":271291,"date":"2026-05-14T19:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/271291\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T19:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:32:10","slug":"jenn-pellegrino-florida-cannot-afford-to-lose-the-fort-meade-data-center-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/271291\/","title":{"rendered":"Jenn Pellegrino: Florida cannot afford to lose the Fort Meade data center fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>President Donald J. Trump\u2019s Ratepayer Protection Pledge<\/a> lays out a clear, common-sense standard: America will dominate the AI race against China, and working families will not be left to finance the profits of big corporations.<\/p>\n

That is the essence of America First leadership.<\/p>\n

And there is no more consequential place to prove it than in Trump\u2019s state.<\/p>\n

Florida is not just another red state. What happens here sends a signal to every Governor, every County Commission, and every state Legislature watching from across the country. If Florida can build AI infrastructure the right way, accountable, community-focused, and protective of ratepayers, it proves the blueprint works.<\/p>\n

If Florida fumbles it, opponents of American leadership in AI will use that failure as a weapon everywhere else.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fort Meade project in Polk County is a critical concrete test. The\u00a0proposed<\/a> $2.6 billion project would be Florida\u2019s first facility of its kind and a major investment in the state.\u00a0Aside from creating well-paying jobs, it would\u00a0generate<\/a>\u00a0hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the city, reducing the burden on taxpayers and helping build vital infrastructure.\u00a0The developer has also reduced projected water usage through a closed-loop cooling system, exactly the kind of environmental accountability that earns public trust.<\/p>\n

Fort Meade Mayor Jaret Landon Williams has shown leadership, transparency, and integrity on this issue, holding open town halls, demanding accountability from the developer, and putting the community\u2019s interests first throughout.<\/p>\n

As a result, the City Commissioners unanimously approved the development agreement. These are local leaders doing the hard work for their communities.<\/p>\n

Yet the same forces working to kill data center development in blue states have arrived in Florida. Leading the legal campaign against the project is Earthjustice<\/a>, a California-based organization founded as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in 1971.<\/p>\n

Also involved is Food and Water Watch<\/a>, a group so extreme that they\u2019ve\u00a0attacked<\/a> the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) as \u201cshilling\u201d for corporate interests. Food and Water Watch campaigns against nuclear energy, conventional fuels, and conventional farming techniques, and advocates for an immediate transition to 100% weather-dependent renewable energy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To these extreme groups, Fort Meade is just a battlefield in a much larger campaign to block American AI infrastructure everywhere.<\/p>\n

They are attempting to implement the agenda of Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who have already introduced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act to impose a nationwide ban on new facilities. These are radical positions that certainly don\u2019t represent Florida.<\/p>\n

Congressman Byron Donalds, who is running for Governor of Florida, has been supporting Trump\u2019s plan, which would advance<\/a> economic growth while being clear that \u201cthese data center projects are going to have to prove that they\u2019re not going to take away from the power grid, that they\u2019re not going to raise utility prices on Florida consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The path forward is difficult but straightforward. Data centers built with genuine community engagement, transparent rate structures, real environmental accountability, and on-site power solutions will earn public support and deserve it.<\/p>\n

The Fort Meade project, with its job creation, infrastructure commitments, and reduced environmental footprint, represents that standard. Florida\u2019s leaders need to hold the line against a well-funded and ideologically coordinated campaign to shut it down and put Trump\u2019s Ratepayer Protection Pledge into practice.<\/p>\n

The rest of the country is watching. We can\u2019t afford for Florida to let radical environmental groups, instead of local leaders, dictate the economic future of Polk County.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Jenn Pellegrino is the founder of Defend Forgotten America Action<\/a>, which seeks to champion forgotten communities and restore power to the people who built America. Jenn previously served as chief spokesperson for the America First Policy Institute, a primetime host for Newsmax, and a White House Correspondent during Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald J. Trump\u2019s Ratepayer Protection Pledge lays out a clear, common-sense standard: America will dominate the AI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[116216,81445,64597,116217,24073,81448,445,4535,14585,116218,409,116219,32379,28,11439,30,29,116220,116221,116222,14594,116223,1911,116224,116225,35084],"class_list":["post-271291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-ai-data-center-moratorium-act","tag-ai-infrastructure","tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","tag-america-first","tag-america-first-policy-institute","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-byron-donalds","tag-california","tag-china","tag-defend-forgotten-america-action","tag-donald-trump","tag-earthjustice","tag-environmental-defense-fund","tag-florida","tag-florida-economy","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-food-and-water-watch","tag-fort-meade-data-center","tag-jaret-landon-williams","tag-new-york","tag-newsmax","tag-polk-county","tag-ratepayer-protection-pledge","tag-sierra-club-legal-defense-fund","tag-vermont"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}