AI = Energy Detransition: Energy analyst Mark P. Mills Testifies to Congress on how massive electricity demand for AI means ‘policymakers can no longer entertain the idea of an ‘energy transition’

Mark P. Mills, Executive Director for the National Center for Energy Analytics and TPPF Distinguished Senior Fellow, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. In his testimony, Mark highlighted how our nation is witnessing “the emergence of a significant and ostensibly unanticipated new vector for electricity demand,” most notably through the rise of AI and other modern technologies. He noted that a growing world economy and U.S. economy necessarily requires rising energy use, especially electricity use.

For example, consider the dramatic energy efficiency gains in computing. One smartphone today would use as much electricity as a skyscraper if the phone operated at the computing efficiency of a 1980 computer. A single data center would use as much electricity as the entire grid. Because of efficiency gains, the world today has billions of smartphones and thousands of datacenters, which consume thousands of times more electricity than was consumed by computers in 1980. Efficiency gains often drive more consumption, not less.

Given the emerging scales of electricity demand from the cloud and AI, especially when added to the emerging demands from reshoring manufacturing and promoting EVs, it should be clear that policymakers can no longer entertain the idea of an “energy transition.” The nation’s electric sector will need full access to all options to ensure enough electricity is produced reliably, and at prices American businesses, and ultimately the public, can afford.

In April, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released four final rules regarding power plant emissions and waste discharge and stretched their authority as far as possible to try to achieve the fantastical goal of eliminating coal in the next decade and replace it with wind, solar, and batteries.

The Energy Future Forum

TPPF’s Mark P. Mills will be co-chairing the Energy Future Forum, presented by RealClear, from 8:30am – 5:00pm EDT on June 26, 2024.