By Taylor Henderson

In 1867, former Colorado territorial Gov. John Evans looked at a room of Denver merchants and delivered a blunt warning: the city was “too dead to bury.” At the time, the Union Pacific Railroad bypassed Denver, and Colorado in effect, in favor of Cheyenne, threatening to turn our now-thriving capital into a forgotten frontier outpost. It took a desperate, locally funded 106-mile rail spur to save our economic future. Without the rail spur, being bypassed by infrastructure would have been an economic death sentence for Colorado.

Today, Colorado is facing a remarkably similar “railroad moment” — but this time, the tracks are fiber-optic cables and the locomotives are data centers.

As the founder of Outshine, a Colorado-based clean energy and digital infrastructure developer — and having served on the boards of the Solar Energy Industries Association in Washington, D.C., Colorado Solar & Storage Association, and Morgan County and Lincoln County Economic Development Corporations — I’m seeing this play out in real time. While Denver has the highest concentration of data center developer headquarters in the nation, those same companies are building their data center projects elsewhere.

Look around us. Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and even Kansas are winning the fight for these generational investments. No offense to Kansas — they’re simply trying harder to win. If we don’t act, we risk a repeat of 1867: watching the wealth and infrastructure of the next century head to our neighbors while we remain “too dead to bury.”

This isn’t just a “big city” tech issue. Major infrastructure projects are the lifeblood of rural economic development. Consider Lincoln County, which currently hosts five wind farms and more than 500 turbines, enough to power between 350,000 to 470,000 Xcel Energy-served homes annually. These projects aren’t just for clean energy; state-assessed property taxes from energy infrastructure account for roughly 45% of Lincoln County’s budget. By 2029, they expect to add two more wind farms, likely using 156 more Colorado-manufactured wind turbines. These successes largely stem from Amendment 37 ballot initiative in November 2004 and then what followed in Senate Bill 100 in 2007, based on the work of Gov. Ritter, the legislature, environmentalists and the utility sector.

However, we are hitting a wall. Our grid — much of which was built in the 1960s — is struggling to handle the generation needed for a modern economy.

This is why I am calling for the passage of House Bill 26-1030 (with proposed amendments). This legislation isn’t a handout; it’s a strategic, opt-in framework that solves three problems at once:

• Environmental responsibility: The bill incentivizes water-efficient data centers powered largely by Colorado solar and wind. In Virginia — the world’s largest data center market — 83% of these facilities use the same water or less than a standard office building. Colorado can — and through HB26-1030 (with proposed amendments) will — set an even higher bar.
• Consumer protection and grid modernization: Crucially, the draft ensures the cost of modernizing our grid is paid for by the data center developers, not by Colorado families.
• Economic development: According to a March 2025 analysis by Daymark Energy Advisors and based on Xcel Energy’s (Public Service Company of Colorado’s) regulatory filings detailing projections of potential large load growth between 2026 and 2030, statewide data center investments could generate roughly $12.5 billion in economic output statewide and support more than 82,000 job-years, with $3.8 billion in labor income spread across construction, manufacturing and the supply chain. Over four years, grid investments to serve data center demand would generate an estimated $195.5 million in state tax revenue and $223.1 million in municipal and county tax revenue — more than enough to offset the public cost of the incentive programs.

In 1867, leaders like Walter Cheesman and David Moffat saved Denver by leaning in when the stakes were highest. Today, we need that same resolve from our state leaders. The governor, the legislature, environmentalists, the utility sector, county commissioners, mayors and city council members, and business leaders need to lean in. 

We have the talent, we have the wind and sun, and we have the development companies headquartered right here in Colorado. All we need is the policy to match. Let’s support HB26-1030 (with proposed amendments) to ensure Colorado remains a leader in the digital age, and doesn’t revert to the 1860s, watching the future pass Colorado by on its way to Cheyenne.

Taylor Henderson is founder and chief energizing officer of Outshine, a Colorado-based clean energy and digital infrastructure development firm.