The Launch Dock

From Enron Warnings to Data Center Promises, How Many Times Must Communities Be Asked to Trust What They Cannot See?

Missouri has heard the language of transformation before.

We have heard that the next major project will change everything. We have heard that communities should move quickly, ask fewer questions, and trust that experts know best. We have heard that size alone proves value.

History says otherwise.

Years ago, Enron represented the polished face of modern progress. It was sophisticated, powerful, politically connected, and deeply embedded in public infrastructure systems. Before its collapse, Enron operated through layers of subsidiaries, complex financial structures, and aggressive market positioning that many ordinary people were expected to simply trust (Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI], n.d.).

At the time, many people saw strength.

Later, the country saw something else.

Complexity Is Not Character

Enron’s rise offers a lesson Missouri should never forget:

Complexity can create the appearance of competence.
Scale can create the appearance of stability.
Confidence can create the appearance of truth.

None of those things are guarantees.

When citizens are told a project is too complicated for ordinary people to question, that is often the moment they should question it most.

Enron is sometimes remembered as a company that merely failed. The FBI later described the aftermath as the most complex white-collar crime investigation in its history at the time, involving executives who used deceptive schemes while employees and investors lost jobs, savings, and security (FBI).

Complexity without transparency is not sophistication.

Sometimes it is camouflage.

What We Should Have Learned, and What Actually Adapted

Enron collapsed, but the lesson did not disappear.

Power studied the failure, refined the tactics, and returned with cleaner language, stronger branding, and more sophisticated structures.

What once looked like corporate excess can now arrive disguised as innovation, urgency, partnership, and inevitable progress.

The names change. The presentation improves. The pressure remains.

Communities are still too often asked to trust first, question later, and accept risk in exchange for promises.

Missouri should know the difference by now.

Enron should not be Missouri’s current economic policy. It should be Missouri’s warning. It did not work then, it does not work now, and it will not work in the future.

Montgomery County Is Right to Ask Hard Questions

Now Montgomery County, Missouri is being asked to consider another version of promised progress through the Missouri Certified Sites Program and interest in large-scale data center projects.

The language has changed.

Now it is:

• hyperscale investment

• future-ready infrastructure

• economic transformation

• site readiness

• next-generation growth

But responsible citizens still ask the same timeless questions:

• How many permanent jobs?

• What wages?

• What tax incentives?

• What public risk?

• What water demand?

• What electric burden?

• What happens when the spotlight moves on?

Those are not anti-growth questions.

Those are pro-community questions.

If It Requires Secrecy, It Requires Scrutiny

Missourians are increasingly being asked to accept NDAs, closed-door negotiations, and limited disclosure in projects involving public consequences.

When land use, tax incentives, infrastructure, utilities, and county futures are involved, secrecy should never become standard practice.

Missouri Sunshine Law exists because the people are supposed to remain owners of government, not outsiders to it (Missouri Revisor of Statutes).

When records requests are delayed, narrowed, redirected, or answered without real transparency, public trust is damaged.

If a project is truly good for the public, it should be able to survive the public seeing it.

Enron did not move from admired giant to collapse overnight. Public scrutiny grew before the final bankruptcy. Questions came first. Consequences came later (Norris, 2001).

Missouri should respect communities asking questions now, not after decisions become irreversible.

Missouri Must Stop Confusing Price Tags With Prosperity

A billion-dollar facility can still be a weak local deal.

A massive footprint can still create limited permanent employment.

A flashy announcement can still leave local families asking why their children had to move elsewhere for opportunity.

Missouri must stop measuring success by construction cost and start measuring it by:

• family-supporting jobs

• rising local wages

• small business spillover

• supplier growth

• population retention

• affordable housing demand

• stronger schools and tax base

• community pride ten years later

That is what prosperity looks like.

What Missouri Could Build Instead

Missouri already has the ingredients for durable growth:

• hometown entrepreneurship

• skilled trades expansion

• advanced manufacturing

• agriculture innovation

• logistics leadership

• tourism and heritage economies

• housing communities where families can stay and thrive

We do not need to lease our future to every outside proposal that arrives with polished presentations.

We can build from within.

Montgomery County Can Lead

Montgomery County has a chance to do something bigger than approve or reject one project.

It can remind the state that citizens still matter.

It can show that asking hard questions is not obstruction. It is stewardship.

It can prove that communities do not need to lower their standards simply because someone wealthy calls a proposal inevitable.

It can demand proof before promises become permanent.

Challenge to Missouri Leaders

Do not ask communities to trust more.

Give them more reasons to trust.

Bring projects that need people, not just power.

Bring employers that build local wealth.

Bring plans that survive transparency.

Bring deals that still look wise ten years later.

Final Thought

Missouri has heard promises before.

That is exactly why Missouri should ask harder questions now.

Our state is not desperate.

Our communities are valuable.

And valuable places should negotiate like they know it.

Call to Action

Missourians should demand reforms that match the scale of the decisions being made:

• No NDAs on projects involving public incentives, public infrastructure, or public land decisions

• Automatic public release of tax incentive packages before approval

• Independent cost-benefit studies paid for by applicants, not taxpayers

• Water and grid impact reports released before local votes

• Clawback provisions if promised jobs or investment fail to materialize

• Citizen advisory votes for megaprojects with long-term county impacts

• Priority scoring for projects that create strong permanent employment

• Public comparison of proposed projects versus local business investment alternatives

• Annual transparency audits for certified site deals

• Sunset reviews of incentives every five years

Because if Missouri is being asked to risk its future, Missouri should have the power to shape it.

In solidarity,
Lyndsay LaBrier
The Merchant Ship Collective

References

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.). Enron. https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/enron

Missouri Revisor of Statutes. (n.d.). Missouri Sunshine Law, Chapter 610. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneChapter.aspx?chapter=610

Norris, F. (2001, October 28). Once mighty Enron strains under scrutiny. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/28/business/once-mighty-enron-strains-under-scrutiny.html