Thanks to ravenous AI datacenters,

the US is retreating into the use of dirty fossil fuels.

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

The fossil fuel business is having a field day, and this is no coincidence as the enormous energy demands of AI data centers are expected to continue rising.

Energy companies already hinted earlier this year that they would continue to operate coal plants, which were previously scheduled for retirement, in order to fulfill demand.

According to Bloomberg, the sector is about to increase output of natural gas, yet another filthy fuel source.
Data from the Sierra Club shows that in the first half of this year, power firms revealed more intentions to build new natural gas infrastructure than they did in the entire year of 2020. Stated differently, the industry is expanding at a rate twice as fast.

According to Bloomberg, since such data started to be tracked, that will be the most new gas generating announced in a single year since 2017.

We were ready to move away from the expensive and environmentally damaging infrastructure of gas and coal plants, as well as the outdated energy system. However, we’re now moving in the other way,” Clean Virginia’s advocacy director, Kendl Kobbervig, told Bloomberg. “A lot of people are feeling whiplash.”

Advocates claim that natural gas is a “cleaner” energy source than other fossil fuels, particularly coal, in terms of its carbon impact. This belief has contributed to the justification of natural gas surpassing carbon lumps as the primary source of electricity generation in the United States.

But be not deceived: the place is still filthy. Gas infrastructure is renowned for leaking the methane that powers it, even if you ignore the ecologically harmful techniques used to extract it, such as fracking. According to Bloomberg, methane has an 80-fold greater greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide, so even minute amounts of the gas can have a catastrophic effect on the climate.

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.