Trump's AI Strategy: Prioritizing Energy and Infrastructure Over Environmental Concerns

Trump's AI plan is a massive handout to gas and chemical companies

Justine Calma is a senior science reporter covering energy and the environment with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home, a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals. The Trump administration put out its vision for AI infrastructure in the US last week. It's a dream for the fossil fuel and chemical industries -- and a nightmare for wind and solar energy and the environment. An "AI Action Plan" and flurry of executive orders Donald Trump signed last week read like manifestos on making AI less "woke" and less regulated. They're packed with head-spinning proposals to erode bedrock environmental protections in the US, on top of incentives for companies to build out new data centers, power plants, pipelines, and computer chip factories as fast as they can. It's a deregulation spree and a massive handout to fossil fuels, all in the name of AI. What the AI plan "is really about" is "using unprecedented emergency powers to grant massive new exemptions for data centers and specifically fossil fuel infrastructure," says Tyson Slocum, energy program director at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. "I think they have a genuine interest in accommodating Big Tech's priorities. But it's an opportunity to marry their priorities for Big Oil." Data centers are notoriously energy-hungry and have already led to a surge of new gas projects meant to satiate rising demand. But many tech companies have sustainability commitments they've pledged to meet using renewable energy, and as wind and solar farms have generally grown cheaper and easier to build than fossil fuel power plants, they've become the fastest-growing sources of new electricity in the US. Now, Trump wants to turn that on its head. He signed an executive order on July 23rd meant to "accelerat[e] federal permitting of data center infrastructure." It tells the Secretary of Commerce to "launch an initiative to provide financial support" for data centers and related infrastructure projects. That could include loans, grants, and tax incentives for energy infrastructure -- but not for solar and wind power. The executive order describes "covered components" as "natural gas turbines, coal power equipment, nuclear power equipment, geothermal power equipment" and any other electricity sources considered "dispatchable." To be considered dispatchable, operators have to be able to ramp electricity generation up and down at will, so this excludes intermittent renewables like solar and wind power that naturally fluctuate with the weather and time of day. Trump's AI planning document similarly says the administration will prioritize deploying dispatchable power sources and that "we will continue to reject radical climate dogma." Already, Trump has dealt killer blows to solar and wind projects by hiking up tariffs and cutting Biden-era tax credits for renewables. The AI executive order goes even further to entrench reliance on fossil fuels and make it harder for new data centers to run on solar and wind energy. "Right now, you do not qualify for expedited treatment if your data center proposal has wind and solar. It is excluded from favorable treatment," Slocum says. "So what's the statement for the market? Don't rely on wind and solar." That's not just environmentally unfriendly, it's inefficient -- considering the current backlog for gas turbines and because fossil fuel plants are generally slower and more expensive to build than onshore wind and solar farms. "This is not an energy abundance agenda. This is an energy idiot agenda," Slocum adds. The Trump administration wants to speed things up by rewriting bedrock environmental laws. Trump, ever the disgruntled real estate mogul, has railed against environmental reviews he says take too long and cost too much. He has already worked to roll back dozens of environmental regulations since stepping into office. Now, the executive order directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to modify rules under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Superfund law, and Toxic Substances Control Act to expedite permitting for data center projects. "That is horrifying ... These [laws] protect our public health. They protect our children. They protect the air we breathe and the water we drink," says Judith Barish, coalition director of CHIPS Communities United, a national coalition that includes labor and environmental groups. The coalition has come together to fight for protections for workers in the chip industry and nearby communities. Semiconductor manufacturing has a long history of leaching harmful chemicals and exposing employees to reproductive health toxins. Santa Clara, California, home of Silicon Valley, has more toxic Superfund sites than any other county in the US as a result. The coalition wants to keep history from repeating itself as the US tries to revive domestic chip manufacturing and dominate the AI market. AI requires more powerful chips, and Trump's executive order fast-tracking federal permitting for data center projects includes semiconductors and "semiconductor materials." Barish says "a chip factory is a chemical factory" because of all the industrial solvents and other chemicals semiconductor manufacturers use. That includes "forever chemicals," for which the Trump administration has started to loosen regulations on how much is allowed in drinking water. Companies including 3M and Dupont have faced a landslide of lawsuits over forever chemicals linked to cancer, reproductive risks, liver damage, and other health issues, and have subsequently made pledges to phase out or phase down the chemicals. Now, manufacturers are jumping on the opportunity to produce more forever chemicals to feed the AI craze. Ironically, we could see data centers and related infrastructure popping up on polluted Superfund sites that Silicon Valley has already left in its tracks. Trump's executive order directs the EPA to identify polluted Superfund and Brownfield sites that could be reused for new data center projects (and tells other agencies to scour military sites and federal lands for suitable locations). Office buildings are already situated on or adjacent to old Superfund sites where cleanup is ongoing; Google workers were exposed to toxic vapors rising from a Superfund site below their office back in 2013. Since it can take decades to fully remediate a site, oversight is key. "For Superfund sites in particular, these are the most contaminated sites in the country, and it is important that there are comprehensive reviews both for the people who are going to be working on the sites, as well as for the people who surround them," says Jennifer Liss Ohayon, a research scientist at the Silent Spring Institute who has studied the remediation of Superfund sites. But Trump wants to erode oversight for new data center projects that receive federal support -- adding "categorical exclusions" to typical National Environmental Policy Act assessments. Environmental reviews that do take place could also be limited by the sheer lack of people power at federal agencies the Trump administration has hacked to pieces, including the EPA. "America needs new data centers, new semiconductor and chip manufacturing facilities, new power plants and transmission lines," Trump said before signing his AI executive orders last week. "Under my leadership we're going to get that job done and it's going to be done with certainty and with environmental protection and all of the things we have to do to get it done properly." Good luck.

What critics don't understand about Trump's energy policies

A recent New York Times article made some alarming claims: China is racing ahead in clean energy, while America under Trump clings to fossil fuels. Beijing is supposedly building wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles for a decarbonized world, while Washington is instead doubling down on obsolete oil, gas and coal. The contrast is stark and seemingly damning -- the U.S., the article suggests, is losing the future. But this story is misleading. What the article misses is the deeper logic shaping the Trump administration's energy policy. It has little to do with nostalgia or climate skepticism, and everything to do with the demands of artificial intelligence. Trump's energy agenda is being guided by a different kind of technological revolution. Massive AI models, sprawling data centers and next-generation chip foundries demand vast, uninterrupted flows of energy. However clean or cheap they may be, wind and solar, by their intermittent nature, cannot deliver the stable, high-density power these systems require. That distinction, between intermittent and dispatchable energy, is the real dividing line in global energy strategy today. And it's why Trump's policy may be more forward-looking than critics realize. If you want to understand the real rationale, look to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. In a recent interview, he stated, "To achieve Nvidia's and America's dream to win the AI race, we've got to produce a lot more electricity." Wright's position is blunt but accurate. Natural gas, followed by nuclear and coal, is what now powers most of America's electricity, and it is these sources that will fuel the AI boom. "Expanded natural gas electricity production ... that'll be the workhorse of winning the AI race," Wright explained. Thus, in Wright's view, the Trump administration policy isn't to reject the future but rather to win it by unleashing American energy production to support the backbone of tomorrow's economy: AI chips, training clusters and data centers. Contrast that with the Biden administration's approach. The Inflation Reduction Act was a landmark in climate legislation, pouring hundreds of billions into renewables, clean tech and place-based development incentives. It was designed to build solar farms, wind capacity and green manufacturing hubs, especially in disadvantaged communities. But for all its strengths, the law was designed in a pre-ChatGPT world. A 2023 Treasury Department fact sheet on the law goes on at length about electric heat pumps, rooftop solar and tax credits for underserved areas. It says nothing about AI, chip fabrication or crypto foundries. The Biden plan focused on equity and emissions, while Trump's plan focuses on watts and AI's electricity demands. That contrast became even sharper with Trump's second-term executive orders. Within days of taking office, Trump moved to dismantle the regulatory infrastructure supporting Biden's climate agenda. He ordered agencies to fast-track fossil fuel development and streamline the permitting of pipelines and power stations. Biden-era climate councils and carbon accounting models were scrapped. Electric vehicle mandates were rolled back. Furthermore, Trump's executive orders on nuclear power called for 300 new gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2050. Advanced reactors are to be deployed at AI data centers and military bases within two years. Uranium enrichment, the revival of shuttered nuclear plants and fuel recycling are all being ramped up under the banner of national security. From liquefied natural gas exports to uranium enrichment, the Trump message is consistent: deregulate, drill, and build. Trump's coalition is not anti-technology -- in fact, it is aggressively trying to corner the energy inputs required for technological supremacy, even if it means tearing up climate policy to get there. That brings us back to the New York Times's climate article's core claims. The piece frames the global energy race as a contest between a clean-energy China and a fossil-fueled America, casting the U.S. as the laggard. But that reading confuses the form of energy with its function. The future won't be won by whoever builds the most solar panels. It will be won by the country best positioned to power the technologies that drive tomorrow's economy. And right now, that technology is artificial intelligence. AI isn't just another app layer. It's a foundational shift in computing, manufacturing, defense and global finance. It demands enormous, stable, always-on energy loads. That means natural gas, nuclear and dispatchable capacity, not just wind and sun. By this logic, it may be China -- not the U.S. -- that's making the bigger strategic misstep. Beijing is doubling down on renewables, but those technologies weren't built to power the AI revolution. Meanwhile, Washington, under Trump, is retooling its energy policy to meet precisely that demand. Guy Laron is a senior lecturer at the international relations department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

US-China race takes center stage as Trump defines AI policy

The Trump administration is increasingly framing the race to dominate artificial intelligence (AI) as an existential competition with China to determine the future of the powerful technology. It's a mindset that has permeated the administration's push to define its AI policy, including as it unveiled its action plan on the subject this month. "The United States is in a race to achieve global dominance in artificial intelligence," an introduction to the plan from several key Trump officials reads. "Whoever has the largest AI ecosystem will set global AI standards and reap broad economic and military benefits." "Just like we won the space race, it is imperative that the United States and its allies win this race," it continues. Outside observers generally say the administration is not overstating either the fact of the intense race or the importance of winning it. They compare the battle to the arms race or the space race in decades past. "It's an AI arms race," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told The Hill. "The U.S., I believe, is ahead of China, but China is not sitting on a treadmill." The new AI model from the Chinese startup DeepSeek was dubbed "AI's Sputnik moment" by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. Sputnik, the first artificial satellite launched into space by the Soviet Union, took the U.S. by surprise and marked the start of the space race between Washington and Moscow. DeepSeek's highly capable model similarly shook the American AI landscape, raising questions for U.S. tech firms about the need for vast investments in computing power and the prospect that Chinese tech firms could eventually surpass them. "You risk becoming reliant on other countries, and then in a moment of crisis, you may not have access to the technology or software that you need," Owen Tedford, a senior research analyst at Beacon Policy Advisors, said of the stakes of the AI race. The Trump administration has approached the growing prospect of Chinese AI by pushing for a focus on innovation over regulation, drawing a sharp contrast with the Biden administration. In its 28-page framework, the Trump administration detailed its plan to win the AI competition, with a focus on removing regulations, expediting the construction of data center and energy infrastructure and exporting U.S. technology abroad. After taking office, President Trump rescinded former President Biden's executive order on AI guardrails, while Vice President Vance criticized "excessive regulation" of AI while in Europe earlier this year. Trump's AI plan looks to boost innovation by taking aim at both federal and state AI rules, directing his administration to slash federal funding for states with regulations deemed too "onerous" -- not unlike the AI moratorium some Republicans unsuccessfully sought to squeeze into the president's "big, beautiful bill." The framework also aims to encourage the adoption of American technology abroad, another key aspect on which the administration is differentiating itself from its predecessor on the AI race. The Biden administration took a more restrictive approach toward the export of American AI, primarily through limits on chip sales that sought to prevent the key hardware from winding up in the hands of foreign adversaries such as China. Biden released the AI diffusion rule in his final days in office, placing caps on chip sales to most countries around the world other than a select few U.S. allies and partners. Trump rescinded the rule in May shortly before it was set to take effect. While some Republicans have urged him to release a new version of the diffusion rule, the president has opted to focus on exporting U.S. technology as a means of boosting AI leadership abroad as opposed to limiting China's resources. He signed an executive order Wednesday directing his administration to create an American AI Exports Program that will develop full-stack AI export packages, featuring U.S. chips, AI models and applications. "There's a belief that maybe by dominating the AI race, if we are able to be technology leaders, China will end up becoming reliant on us instead of cutting it out and forcing it to create its own domestic alternatives," Tedford said. "It's an argument that didn't really seem to have much weight in the Biden administration but seems to be carrying the day much more with the Trump administration," he added. Ben Buchanan, a White House special adviser on AI during the Biden administration, argued in a New York Times op-ed Thursday that Trump is making a "profound mistake" when it comes to China. His criticism centers on a key decision made last week by the Trump administration to once again allow Nvidia to sell its H20 chips to China. Earlier this year, the U.S. implemented new licensing requirements that limited Nvidia's ability to sell the chips in China. However, the company recently revealed it was filing applications to sell the H20s after receiving assurances from the Trump administration that its licenses would be granted. Buchanan argued the decision "threatens American dominance" over AI because "Nvidia's chips will give China's A.I. ecosystem, and its government, just what it needs to surpass the United States in the most critical arenas." Trump's approach also risks alienating the China hawks within his own party, who have voiced concerns that it could boost Beijing's AI capabilities. Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, questioned the administration's decision to allow for H20 sales to China in a letter Friday. "As the Trump administration has repeatedly stated, the U.S. must ensure that American rather than Chinese tech companies build the global AI infrastructure," he wrote. "At the same time, however, we must also ensure that the world does not adopt Chinese AI models trained on U.S. technology." Another outspoken Republican, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), is pushing back on the third prong of Trump's AI plan, which seeks to boost the construction of AI data center and energy infrastructure. The administration has repeatedly underscored the infrastructure needs for building out American AI capabilities, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright comparing the AI race to the Manhattan Project. The tech industry has also ramped up pressure, specifically on the energy front. Anthropic argued in a recent report that the U.S. is "lagging in bringing energy generation online," while China is "rapidly building energy infrastructure for AI." However, Greene warned Thursday that there are "massive future implications and problems" with Trump's data center buildout given its potential impact on water supply, while also taking aim at the president's plan to target state AI rules. "Competing with China does not mean become like China by threatening state rights, replacing human jobs on mass scale creating mass poverty, and creating potentially devastating effects on our environment and critical water supply," she said.