Americans pay the price for AI data centres

The USA’s greenhouse gas emissions jumped by 2.5% last year, contrary to many countries’ policies, due to the global climate crisis. This record surge in gas-fired power has been mostly driven by data centres keeping up with the growing demand for AI, as the US is focusing on growing its tech industry. Alongside these findings, the Trump administration has also been advocating for the proliferation of data centres and scrapping regulations on power plants and oil and gas extraction. We are currently on track to surpass the annual record for new gas power additions worldwide, with US projects in the works expected to nearly double existing global gas capacity, according to a report by Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit that monitors oil and gas developments. If all the ongoing gas projects in the US are completed, they will emit 12.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is double the current annual emissions coming from the US. Globally, these projects are estimated to release 53.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases over their lifetime, worsening heatwaves, droughts, and floods. 

President Trump has strongly backed the growth of AI, aiming to do “whatever it takes”  

to shape the US into becoming an AI leader, disregarding the ramifications this will have on climate change and the American people. The expansion of data centres across the country has increased greenhouse gas emissions and worsened the living conditions of those living near these infrastructures. These power-hungry data centres require water to cool down, and municipal water systems were not built to handle this, especially when the water supply in these areas was designed for residential use instead of industrial cooling. In 2023, it was estimated that US data centres consumed 17 billion gallons of water. A single data centre alone could use up to 300,000 gallons of water in a day. The areas in which these power centres are built are also harming the local community, particularly for low-income residents who depend on private wells. Locals have complained about these wells running dry or reduced water pressure in their homes, prompting the question of why these tech conglomerates are being prioritised over the community. 

Trump is hell-bent on winning the AI rat race

The President’s relentless attacks on renewable energy, alongside his push for AI, have resulted in American citizens paying the price. The power-hungry data centres have raised the demand for electricity, causing utility bills to go up for many Americans. His policies against clean energy and support for expensive and outdated coal and gas plants, amid the Congress’s scrapping of investments in clean energy, are also raising power bills across the country. Analysts predict that the climate projects the Trump administration has gotten rid of could have powered 13 million homes, alleviating electricity demand and lowering overall cost for the country, which would have eased the burden on our power grids and provided relief for staggering bills. By dismantling greenhouse gas rules and slowing clean energy deployment, Trump’s policies keep US emissions higher than they would otherwise be,  contributing to more intense heatwaves, wildfires, and flooding over time. We have already seen this play out in the Los Angeles forest fires last year, as experts believe climate change to be a big contributing factor behind them.  

Although Trump is hell-bent on winning the AI rat race, his actions aren’t all AI-driven, as the President has always been very vocal about his position on climate change, dismissing it as  “non-existent” and an “expensive hoax”. Since his inauguration, he has rolled back numerous climate-related policies placed by his predecessor and aggressively endorsed the use of fossil fuels. He has signed an executive order targeting state climate law, believing it is “burdensome and ideologically motivated”. Further, he scrapped a Biden administration decree that encouraged the development of renewables and issued the Affordable Clean Energy rule, undoing the progress the Obama administration had made with restricting the emissions produced by coal and gas-fired power plants.  

“AI is not going away—we know that,” says Jonathan Banks, a senior climate advisor at Clean Air Task Force, a non-profit that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “It’s really a question of what can we do to diminish the impact of these facilities.”