Renewables ‘Can’t Keep Up’ With Data Center Pace. As Usual, the Left Wants Government to Step In.

[rangerrebew]

Renewables ‘Can’t Keep Up’ With Data Center Pace. As Usual, the Left Wants Government to Step In.
10 hours ago Guest Blogger 26 Comments
By Gary Abernathy

This article was originally published at The Empowerment Alliance and is re-published here with permission.

The political left is worried that the rapid expansion of data centers across the U.S. – a controversial but necessary development considering our competition with China – is increasingly accompanied by the corresponding construction of stand-alone natural gas plants to provide the power demands of the centers.

In Ohio, 10 gas-fired power plants are in the works to fuel new data centers. In West Virginia, a startup business building AI compute campuses plans to utilize hundreds of gas generators by 2028. Newly minted trillionaire Elon Musk has purchased a gas turbine company specifically to power the Tennessee-based data centers fueling Grok.
 
Across the nation, similar stories are playing out region by region, with dedicated gas plants often backed by tech giants who once swore off fossil fuels before reality set in.

Natural gas plants can be stood up relatively quickly and deliver the massive power required to keep the U.S. ahead of its adversaries in the AI/data center race. While data centers have resulted in controversies in some local communities – an unsurprising NIMBY reaction – other places have welcomed the developments.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/07/24/renewables-cant-keep-up-with-data-center-pace-as-usual-the-left-wants-government-to-step-in/

[Cyber Liberty]

Datacenters are about a lot more than AI!  Datacenters are required for almost everything on the World Wide Web, from mighty Amazon to the web store for your local baker, and to the forum you are presently reading!  Paying for web hosting is the primary cost center of The Briefing Room.  We also foot the bill for maintaining the SSL Key to ensure our security and, yes, there is a datacenter somewhere that is required to host that Keyserver!

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Datacenters are about a lot more than AI!  Datacenters are required for almost everything on the World Wide Web, from mighty Amazon to the web store for your local baker, and to the forum you are presently reading!  Paying for web hosting is the primary cost center of The Briefing Room.  We also foot the bill for maintaining the SSL Key to ensure our security and, yes, there is a datacenter somewhere that is required to host that Keyserver!

Yes, although apparently there is a difference between traditional datacenters and the hyperscaling datacenters that AI uses.

[Cyber Liberty]

Yes, although apparently there is a difference between traditional datacenters and the hyperscaling datacenters that AI uses.

Yes.  That is a function of the required data bandwidth required for AI....