Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Wednesday that the risk of losing the global race to develop artificial intelligence is a bigger \u201cexistential threat\u201d than climate change.<\/p>\n
Burgum\u2019s comments came as he promoted a sweeping expansion of fossil fuels to power the wave of data centers that are needed to run AI technology. He also crystallized the political favoritism that President Donald Trump exerts toward coal and natural gas at a time when his administration has halted construction on offshore wind projects, a large source of electricity that has been thrown into disarray even as the nation\u2019s thirst for energy surges.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s going to save the planet is winning the AI arms race. We need power to do that, and we need it right now,\u201d Burgum told reporters on the sidelines of Gastech, a major natural gas industry conference held this year in Italy.<\/p>\n
Burgum echoed other administration officials, and the president himself, in dismissing the risks posed by rising temperatures, including intensifying heat waves that contribute to the death of hundreds people annually in the U.S. Burning fossil fuels has increased global temperatures by at least 1.2 degrees Celsius over the past 150 years, according to the scientific community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real existential threat right now is not a degree of climate change,\u201d Burgum said. \u201cIt\u2019s the fact that we could lose the AI arms race if we don\u2019t have enough power.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m worried about the next generation, but that\u2019s all solvable,\u201d he added, referring to rising temperatures.<\/p>\n
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who spoke alongside Burgum, has also downplayed the dangers of global warming and described efforts to address it as \u201csilly.\u201d He and Burgum were at Gastech to promote U.S. natural gas, which he said is \u201cthe fastest growing source of energy on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n
AI technologies use vast quantities of electricity and data to generate original texts, music, images and video. Trump \u2014 whose reelection campaign was largely bankrolled by Silicon Valley billionaires \u2014 has issued a series of executive orders to remove regulatory hurdles for the technology, which he claims has \u201cthe potential to reshape the global balance of power, spark entirely new industries, and revolutionize the way we live and work.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, the Trump administration has halted construction of nearly completed offshore wind farms<\/a>, canceled a $4.9 billion loan guarantee for a grid upgrade<\/a>, and clawed back a $20 billion fund meant to bring renewable energy to low-income communities<\/a>. Those projects could have added new sources of energy to the grid or made it easier to move electricity across state lines.<\/p>\n The attacks on climate science and clean energy have infuriated advocates who say if the administration wanted to prioritize winning the AI race, it should be adding all new sources of affordable electricity.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to argue that American energy dominance supersedes climate concerns, or that we need an all-of-the-above energy strategy that doesn\u2019t pick clean energy sources as favorites,\u201d said Jesse Jenkins, a Princeton University professor and climate modeler, in an email. \u201cBut the Trump Administration and Secretary Burgum are going far beyond that. They are actively blocking cost-competitive, ready-to-deploy American energy resources to suit their own political or ideological predilections.\u201d<\/p>\n He called the moves by the administration to throttle clean energy \u201cthe single biggest threat\u201d to America\u2019s ability to shape the future of AI.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is truly hard to fathom how we win the AI race if the Trump administration continues to block the fastest-growing and most cost-effective sources of new American electricity,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n Eric Gimon, a policy adviser with the climate policy think tank Energy Innovation, echoed those comments.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if you weren\u2019t thinking about climate change, the clean resources are the fastest, cheapest, easiest resources to deploy right now. So if your priority right now is speed to power, that\u2019s where you should be focused,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Interior Department, Aubrie Spady, did not respond to questions about how the technology race presents existential threats to people, or why the administration is canceling clean energy projects if new sources of power are key to winning. <\/p>\n \u201cClearly you have not been paying attention to the energy and or AI conversation that is happening in this country with your sensational and ill-informed questions,\u201d Spady said in an email. \u201cWinning the AI race against China is critical to America now, and for generations to come. Secretary Burgum has and will continue to underscore the importance of reliable, affordable power and America\u2019s leadership in innovation and national security. If you can\u2019t understand the importance of America winning the AI arms race you probably shouldn\u2019t be reporting on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Orders for natural gas turbines currently face a yearslong backlog, meaning the kind of new power plants that Burgum said are critical to the AI race could take years or even decades to build and bring online.<\/p>\n Some industry executives and associations have also expressed concern about the Trump administration\u2019s restrictions on certain forms of energy.<\/p>\n The chief executive of NextEra Energy, John Ketchum, said at a POLITICO Energy Summit in June<\/a> that the anticipated surge in power demand over the next 20 years could make the country vulnerable to energy shortages and reliability problems if \u201cwe take renewables off the table.\u201d<\/p>\n Aaron Bartnick, who worked on technology policy in the Biden White House, argued that the Trump administration\u2019s energy actions don\u2019t match its AI rhetoric.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you believe that the AI competition is existential and winning it requires producing an unprecedented amount of energy, then you should be pursuing an all-of-the-above energy policy, which includes yes more oil and gas, but also more of everything else,\u201d said Bartnick, a who is now an energy policy fellow at Columbia University.<\/p>\n The nation would be better served in the AI race if the Trump administration followed the policies Burgum pursued as governor of North Dakota, Bartnick argued. While it\u2019s the third-largest oil-producing state, North Dakota also generates 40 percent of its electricity from wind and other renewable energy sources, according to state data.<\/p>\n The race for power<\/p>\n The U.S. Energy Information Administration has reported that wind, solar and batteries accounted for more than 80 percent of new generation in 2024 and forecast that renewables would be 81 percent of new capacity in 2025.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s attacks on clean energy have already led to project cancellations. An August report<\/a> by Climate Power, an environmental advocacy group, found that nearly 14,000 megawatts of planned energy generation have been lost this year due to project cancellations or delays.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration has done everything in [its] power to forfeit the energy arms race to China,\u201d said Jesse Lee, senior adviser at Climate Power. \u201cAnd if you forfeit the energy race, you\u2019re forfeiting the AI race.\u201d<\/p>\n Growing the country\u2019s AI capabilities is one way of competing with China, Trump said earlier this year during a speech<\/a> to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he called for a doubling of energy to make AI \u201cas big as we want to have it.\u201d<\/p>\n He said his plans to unleash fossil fuels and scrap environmental regulations would make the U.S. \u201cthe world capital of artificial intelligence and crypto.\u201d<\/p>\n China has been pouring massive amounts of money into manufacturing clean technologies such as solar, wind and nuclear power. It\u2019s hoping to harness that energy to power its own AI ambitions.<\/p>\n