It’s official: Data centers are slowing America’s shift away from coal

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https://grist.org/energy/data-centers-electricity-power-coal-emissions-climate-report/

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Don’t fall for this bullshit. The cunt in charge is literally closing down renewable projects left and right.

The constant bribes and corruption are what is slowing down the shift. This is scapegoating.

We need regulations for datacenters and all, and it isn’t helping, but this is transparent propaganda.

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These accusations are extremely uncharitable. Trump’s dismantling of clean energy is an entirely different topic, and Grist has published multiple articles on it.

But even ignoring all that, the article literally addresses this:

The national increase in power sector emissions represents the reversal of a longstanding trend. Before the AI boom, U.S. power consumption had been flat for decades . Utilities, grid operators, and energy planners had assumed that pattern would continue, and many planned to retire their older and dirtier coal plants with the expectation that natural gas and renewables could replace them. Instead, electricity demand is rising much faster than anticipated. Data centers could make up more than 10 percent of U.S. electricity usage by 2030, and they operate around the clock, including when wind and solar farm output is low .

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Yes, it exasperates the problem but that’s my point, it isn’t the problem. Trump is literally investing in coal plants. Expecting our energy consumption to stay flat forever is not a solution.

You see the same argument spring up with evs. Evs aren’t the ones burning coal even if that’s what the oil companies were pushing a year ago.

We need a strong grid built on renewables and it should have been started a long time ago.

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Comments in Fuck AI@lemmy.world

Methinks the orange fella had a nonzero influence on this too.

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like “crypto”, but bigger.

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