Biden team looks to ease AI-climate collision
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The White House just launched its most expansive effort to prevent energy-thirsty data centers from undercutting U.S. climate goals.
Why it matters: The infrastructure surge — spurred partly by generative AI — may threaten decarbonization as power consumption climbs.
The big picture: New policies to promote but also manage data center infrastructure growth have Generate-y elements, like:
- A "Task Force on AI Datacenter Infrastructure" will coordinate development "in line with economic, national security, and environmental goals."
- The federal Permitting Council will fund agencies' work to speed evaluation of "clean" energy projects that supply data centers.
- The White House said DOE is boosting existing work to help data centers secure "clean, reliable" energy. There's a new "AI datacenter engagement team."
The intrigue: The White House is walking a tightrope. It says it's supporting more U.S. development while trying to connect it with low-carbon sources.
- One goal is U.S. infrastructure jobs, the White House said, and the energy portions of the policies talk up cooperation — not regulation.
State of play: The announcements followed a White House meeting Thursday with top executives from OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Exelon, Nvidia and many other giants.
- Senior climate aides John Podesta and Ali Zaidi and DOE boss Jennifer Granholm were among the suite of high-level U.S. officials there. CNBC has more.
Stunning stat: New Bloomberg Intelligence analysis sees data center electricity use growing 4x-10x by 2030.
- At the high end of their range, this would account for 17% of U.S. electricity demand in 2030.
What's next: The growth will drive deployment of solar, battery storage and gas generation, "given the relatively short time frames to build such technologies vs. other power sources," analysts Rob Barnett and Patricio Alvarez write.
