The world is passing Minnesota by
Pennsylvania is the beneficiary of staggeringly large investments in new data centers and energy. Minnesota, not so much. From the Associated Press (AP):
Trump and Sen. Dave McCormick team up to promote energy and tech investments in Pennsylvania.
How much? The AP provides a few details:
Neither the White House nor McCormick’s office gave breakdowns of the projects — McCormick put the figure at $90 billion total on Tuesday — or what the investments entail, although some hints began emerging Tuesday.
Google said it would invest $25 billion in the region in AI and data center infrastructure over the next two years, while investment firm Brookfield said it had signed contracts to provide more than $3 billion of power to Google from two hydroelectric dams on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.
That’s $90 billion, with a “b.” One thing these projects all have in common is that none of them are being built in Minnesota. Instead, this is what we get: from KAAL-TV:
Gov. Walz announces $33 million for small businesses in Minnesota.
That’s $33 million, with an “m.” To put the Pennsylvania windfall into perspective, the $90 billion represents about three years’ worth of the entire Minnesota state government budget. But in Pennsylvania’s case, it’s all private money.
As KAAL reports, “This new funding is expected to reach 225 new and developing businesses.” That works out to about $147,000 per business. Meanwhile, back in Pennsylvania:
The list of participating CEOs includes leaders from global behemoths like Blackstone, Bridgewater, SoftBank, Amazon Web Services, BlackRock and ExxonMobil and local companies such as the Pittsburgh-based Gecko Robotics, which deploys AI to bolster energy capacity. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, will also attend.
Some of this investment would have surely come to Minnesota if not for the many taxes, laws and policies enacted in the past three years to discourage private investment and weaken our electrical grid.
Minnesota isn’t even in the game.