Guthrie Suggests China May Be Behind Negative Data Center Sentiment in U.S.
Guthrie suspects misinformation spread by adversaries may be responsible for influencing public opinion on data centers
WASHINGTON, March 4, 2026 — House Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Gutherie, R-Ky., said he believes it's possible that adversaries like China and Russia are feeding the U.S. press misinformation about data centers to sour the public on them.
Speaking at the ACA Connects summit Wednesday, Guthrie added that while he’s not sure that this is indeed what is happening, he believes that this may be part of a strategy to slow America’s ability to win the AI race.
“Whoever controls the flow of data and AI isn't going to be one of the super powers but the super power, and there’s only two countries that can do it, us or China” Guthrie said. “If you're China, what would you want to do to keep Americans from building data centers, how do you do that? You use our system of free press and freedom of information to influence people.”
Guthrie told a story about a group led by a 27-year-old woman in a neighboring county to his district that has riled people up using information she’s heard “offhand” as an example of this in action.
“It's absolutely amazing how it's worked,” Guthrie said.
Guthrie noted that he didn’t want the government to force data center construction in neighborhoods, noting his belief that there are “proper places to put them and bad places to put them” but that we are in “a competitive situation” with China that’s important to win.
Energy & Commerce Markup Preview
Guthrie previewed Thursday’s Energy and Commerce Committee's markup focusing on the “Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act”, or KIDS Act “the big one” that will be voted on, which he predicts will pass out of committee.
If signed into law, the act would establish guardrails for children around the use of advertising, and marketing tools by companies, add additional safeguards for minors on messaging and advertising and the use of chatbots, prohibit direct messaging to kids, create safeguards for online gaming and more.
The current version is the culmination of bipartisan negotiations, which ultimately fell apart on Friday over parental access tools, which would give parents the ability to monitor their kids' online activity, according to reporting by The Hill.
Democrats have expressed reservations about the previous version of the bill, the “Kids Online Safety Act”, or KOSA, noting that the bill would establish a weak federal ceiling and block states from enforcing stronger children’s privacy and safety laws.
The markup will include three additional online safety bills aimed at kids including the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), Sammy’s Law and the App Store Accountability Act, among others.
Guthrie said that the KIDS act would establish additional parental controls and place responsibilities on big tech companies like Google and Apple for what's in their app stores and how kids can get access to it.
“There is a lot of that stuff that happens you can't prevent, but there is a responsibility that these companies have,” Guthrie said.
Despite Democrats backing out of these negotiations, Guthrie said that the Energy & Commerce regularly works on a bipartisan basis, noting that there are serious Democratic members he enjoys finding common ground with such as Doris Matsui D-Calif.
Member discussion