The technology of the future that no one seems to want, brought to you by the energy of the past.
The fanciful, futuristic dream of an AI era has been powered by present-day energy all along. Increasingly, though, it looks like it’s going to be powered by yesterday’s energy too, by which I mean coal, an energy source with climate change externalities comparable to other combustible fuel, but with deadly effects on the local environment.
Now, according to a Politico report, itself drawn from a report by the think tank Frontier Group, utilities’ plans to retire 30 coal-burning units have now been delayed in order to supply energy to data centers.
As EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin wrote in a Fox News op-ed (also quoted by Politico), “To meet growing demand from domestic manufacturing and the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers, America’s coal-powered powerplants must remain in operation.”
Throughout most of the Obama era and the first two Trump years—the span from 2010 to the beginning of 2019—announcements from US energy companies heralded the coming shutdowns of 546 coal generating units.
