Donald Trump's pick for interior secretary has warned that the United States will lose to China in an "artificial intelligence arms race" unless China ramps up fossil fuel power generation and stabilizes its power grid.
Billionaire former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum told U.S. senators on Thursday that the country is stuck because of a weak power grid and "impediments" to companies building fossil fuel plants that could power the world. "Electricity Crisis". -Clock power supply.
He added that the Trump administration would allocate more public lands for oil drilling and slash tax breaks that benefit renewable energy companies that produce "intermittent and unreliable electricity."
"The sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow," Burgum said during his Senate confirmation hearing, adding that the balance was "not normal."
Driven by soaring demand for artificial intelligence processing in data centers, U.S. electricity demand is growing at an unprecedented rate—the Department of Energy predicts that demand will triple over the next three years.
"Without baseload, we will lose to China in the AI arms race, and if we lose to China in the AI arms race, then that will have a direct impact on our national security," Burgum said.
"Now we've put in place barriers to people who want to do baseload (electricity), and we've got a lot of tax incentives for people who want to do it that's intermittent and unreliable."
Burgum, who endorsed Trump after ending his own 2024 presidential bid, is also expected to lead the National Energy Council. If confirmed as Trump's "energy czar," he would have sweeping powers to advance the president-elect's "drill, baby, drill" vision.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday opening up federal lands to artificial intelligence infrastructure, but only if the power would come from clean electricity - part of Democratic leaders' efforts to curb emissions and combat climate change.
Burgum said new technologies such as carbon capture storage could eliminate emissions from fossil fuels - although there are questions about the commercial and technical feasibility of the technology.
The former governor added that limiting U.S. fossil fuel production would produce no environmental benefits as less cautious governments would fill supply gaps.
“The United States produces cleaner, smarter and more secure energy than anywhere in the world,” he said. “When U.S. energy production is restricted, it doesn’t reduce demand, it just shifts production to countries like Russia, Venezuela and Iran – countries with authoritarian leaders who don’t care about the environment.”
Enverus said the U.S. is ready to aggressively develop natural gas power plants to boost baseload power, with up to 80 power plants expected to be online by 2030.
Biden's landmark climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, ties offshore oil and gas lease sales to new offshore wind leases. Asked whether he would protect offshore wind projects under development, Burgum declined to comment.
Trump vows to end offshore wind projects on "day one."