The environmental and political costs of the data center energy boom are coming into focus. Last month, Semafor reported that Amazon’s sustainability chief foresees a multi-year uptick in the company’s carbon footprint.
Now, one key driver is evident: A gas-fired power plant Amazon is building to run a data center in Texas could be the largest single source of power-related emissions in the US, the New York Times reported. Separately, research by former Microsoft engineers concluded that the use of AI by fossil fuel companies to streamline drilling will create an emissions spike that offsets reductions from AI use by clean energy companies.
Policymakers across the political spectrum are increasingly at odds about what to do: While the Republican governor of Texas imposed a moratorium on new data center permits, the Democratic governor of Virginia said she would personally intervene in a massive power company merger that she warned could raise household bills. And in Congress, Democrats are divided about whether to seek a moratorium on the buildout, or merely cut tax credits that enable it.