The US Is Backsliding Into Dirty Fossil Fuels Because of Ravenous AI Datacenters

“We were poised to shift away from the energy system of the past … But now we’re going in the opposite direction.”

Natural Gasp

The monstrous energy demands of AI data centers are set to keep surging — and it’s no coincidence that the fossil fuels industry is having a field day.

Earlier this year, energy providers already signaled that they would keep coal plants, once set for retirement, online to meet the demands.

Now, Bloomberg reports the industry is poised to ramp up the production of yet another dirty fuel source: natural gas.

According to Sierra Club data, power companies have announced more plans to construct new natural gas infrastructure in the first six months of this year than in all of 2020. In other words, the industry is doubling its pace of expansion.

If this rate continues, that’ll be the most new gas generation announced in a single year since 2017, per Bloomberg, when tracking of such data began.

“We were poised to shift away from the energy system of the past, from costly and polluting infrastructure like coal and gas plants. But now we’re going in the opposite direction,” Kendl Kobbervig, advocacy director at Clean Virginia, told Bloomberg. “A lot of people are feeling whiplash.”

Green Dream

In terms of its carbon footprint, proponents argue that natural gas provides a “cleaner” source of energy than other fossil fuels — especially coal. It’s this perception that has helped justify natural gas overtaking lumps of carbon as the largest source of electricity generation in the US.

But don’t be fooled: it’s still dirty. Even if you don’t factor in the environmentally damaging methods that are used to extract it, like fracking, gas infrastructure is notorious for leaking the methane that serves as its main energy source. Pound for pound, methane’s greenhouse effect is 80 times more potent than CO2, Bloomberg notes, meaning that small amounts of it can still have a devastating climate impact.

There’s no doubt that this undermines a carbon-neutral future. While federal forecasts predict that renewables will account for a significant share of new energy sources, that won’t matter much if we keep releasing CO2 anyway (remember, energy demand in the US is going up across the board). Per Bloomberg, Yes Energy estimates that more than 200 gas facilities are being developed across the US as we speak.

It’s worth noting that not all of the announced natural gas infrastructure will be constructed. Based on previous trends, Berkeley Lab estimates cited by Bloomberg suggest that around one-third will end up as working gas plants, which is still a higher rate than wind or solar.

Once they’re operational, though, the gas plants will be wheezing carbon and oozing methane for decades to come, sooty holdovers in an era when we should be making a hard pivot to renewables.

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