Wall Street Journal (September 24)
“The AI build-out is becoming the biggest economic bet in U.S. history.” Spending on data centers is already “greater than that for the canals, railroads and grid combined—creating jobs and wealth but also boosting inflation.” Between 2025 and 2032, “total investment in data centers and related artificial-intelligence infrastructure is projected to total $10.3 trillion.” As this investment transforms the economy, “it is also creating significant risk, as much of it is built on debt. An abrupt slowdown could ignite shock waves throughout the U.S. economy.”
Tags: $10.3 trillion, 2032, AI, Build-out, Canals, Data centers, Debt, Economic bet, Grid, Inflation, Infrastructure, Investment, Jobs, Railroads, Risk, Slowdown, Spending, U.S., Wealth
The Economist (March 6)
“Though understandable,” the knee-jerk reaction following the Fukushima disaster “was wrong.” Nuclear power has numerous drawbacks, but “well-regulated nuclear power is safe” and essential given the climate crisis. Nuclear provides constant generating capacity to support a reliable grid. Furthermore, “nuclear provides such capacity with no ongoing emissions, and it is doing so safely and at scale around the world.”
Tags: Climate crisis, Disaster, Drawbacks, Emissions, Fukushima, Generating capacity, Grid, Nuclear power, Reaction, Reliable, Safe, Scale, Understandable, Well-regulated
LA Times (March 16)
“Californians may be inured to rolling blackouts that cut off their power for hours at a time, but imagine an outage that darkens the entire country — for more than a year.” A federal report, disclosed by the Wall Street Journal, shows this “nightmare scenario” could result if just nine critical substations were knocked out. Officials need to take action and “address the frightening challenges posed by the grid’s reliance on custom-fitted equipment that can take months, if not years, to replace.”
Tags: Action, Blackouts, California, Challenges, Equipment, Grid, Nightmare, Outage, Power, Scenario, Substations
