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Donald Trump's pick for interior secretary has warned that the US will lose the “AI arms race” to China unless it increases fossil fuel power generation and stabilizes its power grid.
Doug Burgum, a billionaire businessman and former North Dakota governor, told U.S. senators on Thursday that the country is affected by grid weaknesses and “roadblocks” that prevent corporations from constructing fossil fuel plants that provide widespread supply. have a “power crisis” -clock performance.
He added that the Trump administration would make more public land available for oil drilling and cut tax breaks to renewable energy corporations that produce “intermittent and unreliable electricity.”
“The sun doesn’t all the time shine and the wind doesn’t all the time blow,” Burgum said in his Senate confirmation hearing, adding that the balance was “off.”
Demand for electricity is growing at an unprecedented pace within the U.S., driven by soaring demand from data centers for artificial intelligence processing – which the Department of Energy predicts will triple over the following three years.
“Without baseload, we’ll lose the AI arms race against China, and if we lose the AI arms race against China, then that has a direct impact on our national security,” Burgum said.
“Right now we now have a stack built where we create barriers for individuals who need to do baseload (electricity), and we now have massive tax incentives for individuals who need to do intermittent and unreliable.”
Burgum, who endorsed Trump after ending his own presidential bid in 2024, can be considered chairman of the National Energy Council. If confirmed as Trump's “energy czar,” he can have broad powers to implement the president-elect's “drill, baby, drill” vision.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order opening up federal lands to AI infrastructure with the requirement that electricity be sourced from clean sources, a part of the Democratic leader's efforts to curb emissions and combat climate change.
Burgum said latest technologies akin to carbon capture storage could eliminate emissions brought on by fossil fuels – although there are questions on the industrial and technical feasibility of the technology.
The former governor added that restricting fossil fuel production within the U.S. would offer no environmental profit because less conscientious governments would fill the availability gap.
“America produces energy cleaner, smarter and safer than anywhere on the earth,” he said. “Cutting energy production in America doesn’t reduce demand, it just shifts production to countries like Russia, Venezuela and Iran – whose autocratic leaders don’t care concerning the environment.”
Enverus says the U.S. is already poised for a boom in natural gas-fired power plants to spice up baseload energy. According to Enverus, as much as 80 systems needs to be connected to the grid by 2030.
Biden's landmark climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, tied the sale of offshore oil and gas leases to latest offshore wind farm leases. Asked whether he would protect offshore wind projects under development, Burgum declined to comment.
Trump has vowed to finish offshore wind projects on “day one.”
