The U.S.’ artificial intelligence boom and collective need to beat China will not only take the best and brightest minds, but an even more powerful and reliable energy grid free of political posturing.
That’s the view from Power the Future and its founder, Daniel Turner, who will publish a thoroughly researched whitepaper on the matter and share his findings with the Trump administration and other stakeholders.
“We keep making this comparison to the moonshot – saying this was all hands on deck. We had to beat the Russians at landing on the moon. Well, now we’re saying we have to be the Chinese at dominating the AI race,” Turner said in a Tuesday interview.
With grid operators already concerned about handling summer demand – even with today’s relatively small AI data center footprint – there’s an urgent need for thoughtful investment to support the massive energy load these facilities require, which is roughly four times that of a typical home or business.
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“Unlike the moonshot of the ’60s, now there’s an element that’s trying to take things off the table, which is reliable energy,” Turner said.
“Our current grid can’t sustain where we are, and yet on top of it, they’re adding this AI layer, which will require three to four times more electricity, and if we’re going to have this real conversation of beating the Chinese to the AI race, then nothing should be taken off the table, and yet, governors, mayors, municipalities are pushing to get rid of the only thing that works: which is fossil fuels.”
Turner underlined that his whitepaper is not hyperpartisan, but instead an academic look at what will be needed to ensure the U.S. stays ahead of China and its DeepSeek tech – just as the U.S. made it to the moon first despite the U.S.S.R.’s Sputnik launch prior.
In the Washington, D.C., metro area, where Turner lives and where the paper focuses, the AI data center race is in full swing.
Virginia has been seeking to bolster its data-center footprint, but oftentimes requires transmission lines from neighboring West Virginia to supply the energy needed to sustain both AI and the Old Dominion’s residential/business grid.
“[They’ve] built almost 250 of them – so we’ve added [the equivalent of] 25 million people to Virginia’s population in terms of energy consumption, and not one more drop of electricity.”
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Gov. Glenn Youngkin has echoed this concern, warning, “Wind and solar aren’t going to get it done,” while praising the marked increase in AI data centers across the state.
Youngkin recently vetoed a Democratic data-center-related bill he called “well-intentioned” but a wrong “one-size-fits-all” approach that increases “unnecessary red tape.”
In Fauquier and Loudoun counties – also known as “horse country” – Turner noted there are NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) concerns about the new AI-level-power transmission lines, but people don’t realize that “energy has to come from somewhere.”
Another major concern for sustaining AI’s future is water availability. AI infrastructure consumes massive amounts of water – nearly as much as it does electricity. Near Turner’s farm outside Berryville, locals have noticed creeks and ponds running unusually low, and Turner believes there’s more than just drought to blame.
“We’ve added 25 million people in terms of consumption of electricity and water without adding any additional sourcing.”
Among governors, Youngkin, Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, West Virginia’s Patrick Morrisey, Alaska’s Mike Dunleavy and others have sought to lead on the AI data center front.
Turner nodded to the fact that Microsoft is planning to repurpose Three Mile Island in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania – citing the fact the Susquehanna River provides a good water source, also citing the island’s nuclear history.
But, in states like New York, the shuttering of the Indian Point nuclear facility on the Hudson River opposite Haverstraw has had inverse effects.
Turner said New York leaders have the chance to overturn past governors’ crackdowns on energy generation and make the state the proverbial Empire of AI.
“There are solutions here – like restarting coal nationwide and restarting nuclear – that AI experts say we’re headed in. If we literally need three or four times as much electricity production, then like China, we’re opening a coal plant… and we’re not,” he said.
“Ultimately, corporatists are corporatists. They would love to build an AI data center here, but if there is not guaranteed power, they’re going to build it whoever gives them guaranteed power.”
“America is not close to providing the AI world the reliable power,” he warned.
But, he added, “we have the ability to win.”
In the study, Power the Future noted that if the U.S. “does not get serious about developing the energy resources needed to win the breakout AGI Race, it will see itself marginalized both in terms of economic and natural security.”
“In a cruel irony, it may find itself dependent upon the economies of China – with which it is currently locked in hegemonic economic and geopolitical competition while trying to decouple from a trade perspective – and the Middle East – upon which we were dependent for imported oil in the 1970s before renewed investment made America’s robust natural resources the envy of the world.”
