From Unleash Prosperity Hotline Issue #1333:
Wake Up America: We’re Nearing An Electric Grid Blackout Disaster
This headline from the energy industry news sources in recent days is hair-raising:
This is one of the most imminent threats to our security and economy, and yet almost NO ONE in Washington or in state capitals is paying attention. Much of the crisis is due to the green energy idiocy of the last administration.
America is rapidly building data centers to make way for the AI/robotics revolution. That’s the good news. The bad news is we don’t have a reliable grid system to handle the massive increase in electricity demand. We’re nearing full capacity and the demand could double over the next decade.
Experts say that these latest data centers “are growing faster and bigger than ever” and “can consume as much power as entire cities.”
Data Center Power Demands Will Quadruple Over 10 Years
| How do we avert the crisis? – Remove ALL Biden-era obstacles to drilling for natural gas – the cleanest and most efficient power source. – Stop shutting down efficient and low cost clean coal plants – Green light the building of nuclear plants.Protect and expand the reliability of the electric grid system IMMEDIATELY. – End renewable energy mandates in many states that disrupt the grid system and double power costs. Build pipelines and LNG terminals to safely transport gas throughout the country and w– |
For a more extensive look at the threats to electricity prices and water availability, Real Clear Politic has this piece.
Adn from the Chicago Sun-Times:
AI is depleting drinking water sources around Illinois, Midwest
Large data centers, many devoted to artificial intelligence, are expected to use more than 150 billion gallons of water across the U.S. over the next five years, according to the advocacy organization Alliance for the Great Lakes. That’s enough water to supply 4.6 million homes, used instead to cool computers.
Gov. JB Pritzker is in a race with other states to bring in data operations to fuel economic development, writes my Sun-Times colleague Brett Chase. Chicago and Illinois are being targeted for massive data centers, lured in by state and local government subsidies. There are more than 200 across the state already either built or in development.
As underground water supplies dry up, that could raise the need to draw more from the Great Lakes, which Volzer calls a “finite resource” because only 1% of the lakes’ volume is replenished each year from rainfall, groundwater or melting snow. Water systems just outside Chicago and across the Midwest are already showing stress from increased water demand.
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A reason we should not have a data center drawing down McHenry County’s water table.
When Oakwood Hills was trying to site a gas generator electric plant, which would use groundwater, it was discovered that there is a deep water aquafer with salty water.
Use of water from it would not affect our drinking water.
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There sources are contained in this Capitol Fax post.
