Biden Administration’s Move to Expand Data Centers for AI Will Exacerbate the Climate Crisis and Hurt Consumers

WASHINGTON – On January 14th, President Biden declared an Executive Order on Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure. This order instructs the Department of Defense and Department of Energy to lease federal sites to private-sector entities for constructing large-scale artificial intelligence data centers.

Environmental and tech accountability groups have advocated for greater regulation of AI for years, citing 1) the stress that AI data center expansion will place on the energy grid 2) the technology’s history of perpetuating disinformation. Research from these groups has shown that AI systems require an enormous amount of energy and water, and consumption is expanding quickly. The current AI policy landscape reveals a concerning lack of regulation on the federal level, with minor progress made at the state level.

Karen Orenstein, Director of the Climate and Energy Justice Program at Friends of the Earth US, issued the following response:

It was unwise for President Biden to fast-track data centers on federal lands as one of his final acts as president. The explosion of data centers by Big Tech will exacerbate the climate crisis and make electricity more expensive for ordinary consumers.  

The alarming surge in these centers’ energy demand is on track to extend the fossil fuel era, revive the nuclear industry, increase climate and other environmental pollution, and worsen pollution overload in marginalized communities. It is already increasing costs for some consumers and threatens to bring about a larger affordability crisis, while lining the pockets of Big Tech billionaires. For the sake of our planet and its people, we need to reign in Big Tech and regulate AI.

Communications contact: Erika Seiber, [email protected]