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The US will keep open coal and natural gas plants in order to fuel the rise of AI.
That’s according to the report from the Department of Energy (DoE), which predicted a surge in power outages due to AI data centre growth unless new capacity was added. None of that is much of a surprise, as energy-hungry AI has prompted plenty of concerns about the impact on energy systems.
The US DoE report claimed that planned closures of dirty energy sources driven by “the radical green agenda” would have to be pushed back. These “retirements” increase the risk of power outages by 100 times, the DoE analysis said – though that factor only applies when wind and solar generation aren’t possible because of weather conditions.
To be clear, blackouts and other energy grid failures happened before AI started gobbling through energy supplies, as parts of the US haven’t kept infrastructure up to date. Indeed, the DoE has issued an emergency order to avoid blackouts this month for southeastern states amid a rise in extreme storms.
But the massive increase in energy use spurred by AI will unsurprisingly exacerbate those problems. This being Trump’s America, the report isn’t a call to go slowly on AI or build better power sources, but instead a demand to keep burning coal and gas, climate consequences be damned. (The words “climate” or “emissions” are nowhere to be found in this report.)
“In the coming years, America’s reindustrialization and the AI race will require a significantly larger supply of around-the-clock, reliable, and uninterrupted power,” said energy secretary Chris Wright in a statement.
“President Trump’s administration is committed to advancing a strategy of energy addition, and supporting all forms of energy that are affordable, reliable, and secure. If we are going to keep the lights on, win the AI race, and keep electricity prices from skyrocketing, the United States must unleash American energy.”
As of 2024, 58% of US electricity came from burning fossil fuels, versus 34% in the UK and 32% for the EU, according to Our World in Data.
The report shows that the tech industry claims about being powered by green or sustainable sources don’t bear up to scrutiny.
While their own data centres may well actively source renewable energy, and their investments may encourage its development, the rest of the country will still have to burn fossil fuels in order to make up any shortfall.
Tech giants and academics alike have also repeatedly claimed that AI as a tool will help drive down emissions, yet Google’s emissions continue to climb, up 51% over the last five years thanks to the rise in AI.
Bill Gates has said AI can make fighting climate change “far easier to do” and said that AI will facilitate a reduction in energy use above and beyond what it uses. So far, that hasn’t happened.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt reckons we blew past climate goals already, so may as well roll the dice on AI solving the problem for us. Even energy companies claim AI is accelerating the energy transition to renewables – and yet here America goes, burning more coal. (Though perhaps that claim holds true elsewhere, and has little to do with AI and more to do with politics.)
In the meantime, one estimate suggests ChatGPT search uses ten times the energy of searching on Google. Mind, that was before the rise of AI Overview, when you don’t even ask for it, which will surely even out that equation.
Maybe the government and tech companies alike should use the tools they make to look up “impacts of emissions on worsening storms”.
