Trump Must Deregulate U.S. Energy to Unleash AI Dominance

America’s vast natural gas reserves can power data centers and help it win the AI race with China

By Niall Ferguson and Nick Kumleben. Excerpts:

"the current U.S. grid can’t meet the AI challenge. Leading data-center markets in northern Virginia, Georgia and elsewhere are crippled by lack of power. Environmental regulations and grid-permit guidelines mean that major data-center projects have had to be canceled to protect, for example, the habitat of a rare bumblebee. Without more power supply, AI data centers’ growing demands could cause a spike in electricity prices, harming American consumers and industrial competitiveness."

"In 2023 China’s new coal electricity capacity accounted for two-thirds of the world’s total."

"Solar and wind are cheap and clean but don’t provide the round-the-clock power that data centers require—and they are often deeply dependent on Chinese supply chains, now severed by the trade war. The number of mothballed U.S. nuclear reactors that can be turned back on is low (two, perhaps three). The best sites for hydroelectric dams have long since been developed. Advanced nuclear and geothermal technologies are years away from commercial operation, if they ever prove viable. The only other options are coal or natural gas."

"Thanks to American innovation and carbon-dioxide management techniques developed during the shale revolution of the early 2010s, the U.S. energy industry has learned to manage, transport and capture more than 90% of a natural gas turbine’s carbon-dioxide emissions."

"Natural gas power generation with carbon capture and storage is the only scalable, clean, reliable way to power the data centers the AI revolution requires."