{"id":75211,"date":"2025-11-30T05:39:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T05:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/75211\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T05:39:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T05:39:36","slug":"exploring-ai-data-centers-impact-on-u-s-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/75211\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring AI data centers&#8217; impact on U.S. resources"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 As the U.S. races to stay competitive in the global AI boom, data centers are multiplying at a record pace. But a new analysis from the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2025\/10\/24\/what-we-know-about-energy-use-at-us-data-centers-amid-the-ai-boom\/#:~:text=U.S.%20data%20centers%20consumed%20183,the%20Electric%20Power%20Research%20Institute.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Pew Research Center<\/a> shows that behind the innovation is a massive, and growing, strain on the country\u2019s energy and water systems. And for everyday Americans, that could mean higher bills and new long-term environmental challenges.<\/p>\n<p>AI\u2019s Power Appetite Is Exploding<\/p>\n<p>Pew\u2019s review of federal and international data shows U.S. data centers used 183 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2024, about 4% of all electricity used nationwide, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/todayinenergy\/detail.php?id=65264\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">International Energy Agency (IEA).<\/a> That\u2019s roughly equal to the entire annual electricity use of Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest driver? Hyperscale facilities built specifically for AI models.<\/p>\n<p>According to Pew and the IEA, a typical AI-optimized hyperscale center uses as much electricity as 100,000 homes a year. Newer mega-facilities could use 20 times more once they go online.<\/p>\n<p>In major hubs, especially Northern Virginia, clusters of these centers now consume more than a quarter of the state\u2019s total electricity supply, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epri.com\/research\/products\/3002028905\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Electric Power Research Institute<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p>The Ripple Effect: Rising Bills and Stressed Grids<\/p>\n<p>The higher the power demand, the more utilities must upgrade the grid, and those costs don\u2019t disappear.<\/p>\n<p>In the PJM electricity market (Illinois to North Carolina), data center growth added $9.3 billion in capacity costs for 2025\u201326, per Pew\u2019s analysis of PJM data. The result:<\/p>\n<p>+ $18\/month in western Maryland<\/p>\n<p>+ $16\/month in Ohio homes<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmu.edu\/work-that-matters\/energy-innovation\/data-center-growth-could-increase-electricity-bills\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Carnegie Mellon University <\/a>estimates U.S. electricity bills could rise 8% by 2030 just from data centers and crypto mining alone, with even steeper hikes in the most data-center-dense regions.<\/p>\n<p>Water Use: The Quiet Problem No One Is Ready For<\/p>\n<p>Electricity isn\u2019t the only resource being pushed to the limit.<\/p>\n<p>Pew cites federal figures showing U.S. data centers used 17 billion gallons of water in 2023, mostly to cool energy-intensive AI chips at hyperscale sites. And by 2028, hyperscale centers alone could be consuming 16 to 33 billion gallons annually \u2014 roughly the yearly use of a mid-sized U.S. city. Cooling demands vary by season and by facility design, but researchers say the overall trend is clear: AI growth means water demand is climbing fast.<\/p>\n<p>Americans Are Unsure What to Make of AI\u2019s Environmental Impact<\/p>\n<p>Pew\u2019s August 2024 survey suggests the public hasn\u2019t formed a consensus:<\/p>\n<p>25% believe AI will harm the environment20% believe it will help25% think it\u2019ll be a mix30% aren\u2019t sure<\/p>\n<p>That uncertainty mirrors the reality: the U.S. is witnessing a resource-intensive surge with no clear long-term blueprint yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 As the U.S. races to stay competitive in the global AI boom, data centers are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-75211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}