PITTSBURGH (TNS) — Not since the days of Andrew Carnegie has there been as much economic power in one Pittsburgh room as there will be at Carnegie Mellon University today. And perhaps never has there been as much economic opportunity for Western Pennsylvania on a single day as there will be today.

I was prepared to believe that Sen. Dave McCormick’s “Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit” was little more than a stunt, where the usual suspects would make the usual noises about the miracle of natural gas that we’ve heard time and again.

When President Donald Trump was announced as the headliner, if anything that confirmed my suspicion: The whole thing would be presided over by the king of stunts.

DEPLOYING LEVERAGE

But as I looked more closely at the guest list, and then started asking around, I’ve been forced to revise my initial reaction: This is the most important gathering in Pittsburgh since the G-20 in 2009.

That was a global meeting that happened to occur in Pittsburgh, from which Pittsburgh benefitted largely from positive media attention. This summit is, in large part, about Pittsburgh, and potentially many billions of dollars of investment in the region. It could be the turning point the G-20 only appeared to be.

The underlying logic of the summit is, in part, political: It’s based on an insight that many people recognize, but too few, at least among Western Pennsylvania’s elected and unelected leaders, have taken action on: the state in general, and this end of the commonwealth in particular, is absolutely essential to the Trump-Republican national coalition. And, for that matter, to any hopes of Democratic resurgence.

Pittsburgh has something it has very rarely possessed on a national scale: leverage. We can ask for goodies from Washington that many other states, deep red and deep blue, lack the political standing to request.

The problem is that Mr. Trump is so divisive that the region’s Democratic elected officials can’t (or won’t) risk entering into a political-economic transaction with him — that is, not only letting him help us, but letting him take credit for it. Pittsburgh just went through a mayoral election where one of the key issues was “standing up to Donald Trump.”

Further, because the region’s core is deep blue, the vast majority of unelected regional leaders are also affiliated with the Democratic Party: former elected officials, former staff of elected officials, members of the city’s respectable center-left establishment. The region’s economic development infrastructure is built to influence Democratic administrations, and to endure Republican ones.

Enter Pennsylvania’s first GOP senator since Pat Toomey. Sen. McCormick saw an opportunity Western Pennsylvania’s incumbent leaders couldn’t (or wouldn’t) capitalize on, but that he absolutely could. In so doing, he has achieved a coup they could not.

THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS

The opportunity: the Pittsburgh region has the natural and institutional resources to place it precisely at the intersection of energy and AI.

Carnegie Mellon, which is internationally recognized for AI research. Westinghouse, which is close to producing small modular nuclear reactors, possibly right here. Several AI startups along the newly christened AI Avenue. An ocean of natural gas and the infrastructure to move it. Numerous brownfield sites with fresh water access.

And steel, preserved by the Nippon acquisition, which is the most important material input to AI and energy infrastructure. All in a politically critical region suffering from generations of disinvestment.

The supercomputers and data centers that make AI possible crave reliable and consistent energy, which can be produced best with either fossil fuels or nuclear reactors. The biggest data centers will include massive on-site power generation, and everything needs to be cooled with fresh water.

In the construction, maintenance and management of these facilities, there could be tens of thousands of jobs — especially for skilled union labor.

What we’ve been missing is the leadership to put it all together, and specifically to catalyze big investments. Until now: The guest list McCormick has generated for the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit is staggering.

On the tech side, the CEOs of Meta, OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet (that is, Google), Anthropic and others. On the energy side, the CEOs of ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, Pittsburgh’s own EQT — the irrepressible Toby Rice — and more. On the government side, at least two cabinet secretaries, the White House’s “AI czar” and  Trump’s chief of staff.

It is also said that international investment firms, such as MGX, the AI investment company affiliated with the United Arab Emirates, will be represented at the summit. Emirati sovereign wealth funds are looking to make over $1 trillion (that’s not a typo) in AI investments in the next decade — and now Pittsburgh is on their map.

EVERYTHING’S IN PLACE

These people do not converge for a dog-and-pony show. They’re here to do business. And not just business with each other: business here.

Could it all be another mirage, a political scheme, a right-wing boondoggle for favored industries? Yes, it’s possible. Executives and politicians and financiers, especially all together, should always be regarded with suspicion.

But we — that is, the region’s people and leaders — would be fools not to notice that we really do have everything we need, including political leverage, to capitalize on this remarkable moment in economic and technological history.

And we’d be particularly foolish to spurn a president, and a senator, who have every incentive to deliver wins for this region.

(Brandon McGinley is the commentary page editor at the Pittsburgh Podt-Gazette.)