The AI concept image shows massive AI server farms plugged directly into a modern nuclear facility while the surrounding towns get darker.
The race for artificial intelligence supremacy has taken an unexpected turn, as the largest tech companies are now vying to secure direct electricity supplies from the nation’s nuclear power plants. This unprecedented marriage of the tech and nuclear industries could have far-reaching implications for grid reliability, energy costs, and the clean energy transition.
According to an informative article in my morning Wall Street Journal, the owners of roughly a third of U.S. nuclear power plants are in talks with tech giants like Amazon Web Services to provide electricity directly to new data centers needed to fuel the AI boom. The potential deals would remove stable power generation from the grid at a time when reliability concerns are already on the rise across much of the country.
While pairing nuclear power’s high reliability with tech’s insatiable demand for 24/7 carbon-free electricity may seem like a match made in heaven, the implications are more complex. Instead of adding new renewable energy to the grid, these tech-nuclear deals would effectively divert existing electricity resources. This could drive up prices for other consumers.
The article highlights the tensions emerging in states like Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, where policymakers grapple with the tradeoffs. On one hand, these deals could spur economic development and provide a lifeline for struggling nuclear plants. But on the other, they risk siphoning clean energy away from the grid and forcing greater reliance on natural gas to fill the void. Not that LNG is the carbon demon that the opposition paints it as. (See below).
As traditionally Yankee green Norm Needleman, a Connecticut state senator, said: “If we lose a carbon-free resource, what are we going to replace it with?” From China Syndrome to nuclear green savior overnight, even notorious Yankee greensters such as Needleman are beginning to see the nuclear light.
The Winchester Report: Kudos to Alaska, the ESG Slayers
My learned compatriots, allow me to regale you with a tale of energy enlightenment from the Great North—a story of how Alaska’s indomitable spirit has risen to challenge the dogma of the carbon-phobic elite.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, in Adam Crum’s brilliant commentary titled, Exxon Mobil Takes On Climate Extremists, the good people of Alaska, led by the valiant ExxonMobil corporation, have chosen to chart a course of energy pragmatism, casting aside the shrill demands of the environmental zealots. And rightly so, for they have recognized a fundamental truth that eludes the so-called “ESG experts” of the fossil-fuel-phobic persuasion.
LNG For a Moderated Green Transition
For you see, my friends, the oft-maligned liquefied natural gas, or LNG, is no mere fossil fuel but rather a shining beacon of environmental stewardship. Recent studies have shown that LNG produces a mere 40% of the carbon dioxide emissions of that most demonized of fuels, coal, and a full 30% less than the oft-derided oil. Truly, LNG is the cleanest of the fossil fuels, a veritable ally in the quest for a greener tomorrow.
Yet, the myopic vision of the climate extremists would have us believe that only a carbon-free future is worthy of our pursuit.
Bah, I say! Such a narrow-minded approach fails to account for the realities of our energy demands, the needs of a planet teeming with 8 billion souls and counting. Surely, even the most ardent of environmentalists must concede that the path to a sustainable future cannot be paved with the blackouts and brownouts that have already plagued the ill-conceived “green” experiments of California and Texas.
No, my friends, the Alaskans have shown us the way forward – a balanced and pragmatic approach that embraces the virtues of LNG, even as we continue to strive towards the loftier goals of renewable energy. For is it not the height of folly to shackle our industrial might and economic prosperity to the whims of those who would cast aside the realities of physics and engineering in favor of political expediency?
Nay, the Alaskans have demonstrated the true spirit of innovation and progress, recognizing that a diversified energy portfolio is the surest path to a sustainable future. They have cast aside the shrill demands of the climate zealots, understanding that the quest for a carbon-free world cannot be achieved at the expense of our economic well-being and the very foundation upon which our modern civilization rests.
So let us raise a glass (or four) to the intrepid Alaskans of the essential oil and gas industry, whose unwavering commitment to responsible energy development is a bulwark against misinformation and hysteria. May their example inspire others to cast off the shackles of ideological green zealotry and embrace the path of true progress, where the needs of the people, the economy, and the environment are harmoniously aligned.
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