At the “Energy and Innovation Summit” he is planning for July 15 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, it’s a safe bet U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick will tout the economic possibilities of artificial intelligence.
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McCormick has invited President Donald Trump to the summit, along with “the world’s top leaders in energy and AI… the biggest global investors, labor and trades leaders, and government officials,” he said in a statement. The event will showcase Pennsylvania’s ability to “power the AI revolution.”
“Pennsylvania is blessed,” McCormick said in a promotional video. “We have amazing assets–the second largest energy capability in the country.” Pennsylvania is the second-largest natural gas-producing state in the country after Texas.
But using natural gas, a fossil fuel, to power energy-hungry data centers for AI will increase carbon emissions, experts say, making climate change worse.
McCormick did not respond to requests for comment.
An AI data center bonanza in PA?
McCormick, a Republican, is one of many Pennsylvania leaders in both parties to tout the state’s abundant gas resources, fed by the fracking boom, as a lure to the ever-growing AI-data center industry.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has touted Amazon’s $20 billion plan to build two data centers in the state, drawing some of its power off the state’s electrical grid, where natural gas is the dominant energy source. The state is giving Amazon millions of dollars in tax breaks to build the centers.
In Homer City, Indiana County, a New York-based financial company announced a $10 billion data center project that will involve the construction of the largest natural gas plant in the U.S.
Energy Impact Grows
All this activity is underway in large part due to the emergence of AI as a viable industry, says Yury Dvorkin, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Dvorkin, a native Russian speaker, uses ChatGPT and other AI-capable applications to hone his written English.
“I love it,” he says. “It’s fantastic technology.”
The problem, he said, is every time he gives ChatGPT an order or prompt, somewhere a computer server at a data center is working to fulfill that order. That requires a lot of electricity.
“Right now, we run a prompt of ChatGPT and that instantly creates an energy impact,” he said.
That impact is getting bigger. The Department of Energy estimates data center electricity use could nearly triple by 2028, from 4.4 percent of U.S. electric power use in 2023, increasing up to 12 percent in 2028. It is also threatening to raise costs for other electricity consumers.
Shaolei Ren of the University of California, Riverside says some estimates are lower, but the overall picture is clear.
“These predictions just point to the fact that we’re going to see a hugely increasing demand for AI,” Ren said.
As more and more sectors adopt AI, they will place more of a demand for data centers around the country.
Each AI action, like a Chat GPT prompt, requires a huge amount of computation. This, in turn, heats up computer hardware, which needs to be cooled through air conditioning and other means. Though tech companies are looking into low-carbon sources like renewables and nuclear, a lot of their electricity will come from the grid, which is still pretty dirty.
“A large fraction of the energy in the U.S. is coming from fossil fuels. And that’s why these AI models do have a carbon footprint,” Ren said.
Straining the grid, and pumping out CO2
In Pennsylvania, both Amazon data centers will draw at least some of their electricity from the grid.
Paulina Jaramillo of Carnegie Mellon University was part of a group that looked at the projected impacts of AI. They found that by 2030, data centers in the U.S. could be responsible for as much CO2, the main ingredient in climate change, as the country of France. Part of the reason is that we can’t build power plants fast enough to keep up with demand.
“So that means we maintain some very dirty plants that were scheduled for retirement,” Jaramillo says. Add to this scenario the fact that Trump’s signature budget megabill just erased major incentives for renewable energy.
“There’s just all of these policy levers that are being stacked against renewables at a time where we’re seeing this need for additional electricity supply,” Jaramillo said. “And so I think that’s a very scary prospect.”
Jaramillo says that’s because we are now experiencing climate change–the process where more heat is trapped by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels– is supercharging weather events, and increasing the costs of things like insurance rates along the coast. 2024 was the hottest on record, surpassing 2023’s record heat.
“We’re all talking about Texas right now and the flooding in Texas,” she said, referring to the flooding in Central Texas that killed more than 100. “Climate change has played a role in intensifying those extreme precipitation events that lead to flash flooding.”
Jaramillo signed a letter objecting to President Trump’s planned on-campus visit over issues like his attacks on foreign-born students and federal science grants. She says the CMU summit, where McCormick and other leaders will promote the use of natural gas to power AI, is an example of how those in power are ignoring climate change.
As with many things related to climate change, Jaramillo said, “it isn’t necessarily about technology or our ability to deal with it. It’s about our political willingness to deal with it.”
