By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News

As the world shifts its attention to artificial intelligence, the need for data centers continues to rise across the United States. However, along with these data centers comes an increased need for energy in a climate where prices have risen 30% over the past year. 

Consumer Energy Alliance President David Holt joined the KOAL newsroom to discuss these issues and potential solutions and consider the future.

To open our conversation, Holt explained how President Donald Trump’s energy emergency declaration has impacted consumer prices: ” I think we’re seeing prices come down. It’s a one-for-one equation, right? If you lower energy prices, then you lower the price for everything, which is the inflation we’ve been feeling. Energy goes into everything; you can’t farm, package, or buy anything at the grocery store without energy.”

Holt continued,” When you remove red tape and relax regulation – you start letting the market react and respond – and then you see very quick results.”

This need for cheap energy plays into the ongoing AI revolution, which sees the construction of data centers nationwide to drive this technology. In 2023, these centers consumed 7.4 gigawatts of power. 

“It’s gonna be unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Data centers are really, really energy-intensive. You drive down the highway, and you see these big box stores. Well, inside those big box stores are thousands of servers. The servers themselves use a lot of electricity, and keeping the servers cool uses a lot of electricity. So we need to ramp up our electricity opportunities to meet that demand while we meet the demand of all of us on a daily basis,” explained Holt. “We’ve seen electricity prices in the last couple of years go up quite a bit. We need more investment in removing regulations that allow more investment in the grid.”

Holt’s proposed changes to increase this production while lowering prices include” adding more natural gas to our power generation system ” and ” having the federal government get out of the way.”

Additionally, Holt recommends that the U.S.” look at nuclear. The government at the state, local and federal levels needs to be a partner and a guide, providing oversight to ensure it’s clean and done the right way.”

As for whether this energy development would be able to run off the current electrical grid or if it would need improvements, Holt explained it would be a bit of both. “Some AI data centers are looking to be built in clusters. Some of these Big Tech companies, like Google, are looking at opportunities for their own mini power plant that they would put with the centers. They would be loosely connected to the grid so they could have their own power system that in peak demand days, the grid could borrow from that power system to ensure that the rest of us all have the electricity we need.”

In closing, Holt shared,” Make sure that who you’re voting for – it doesn’t matter if they’re Democrat, independent or Republican – make sure they understand energy policy is the lifeblood of this country. All our political leaders need to understand that overregulation is a bad thing for energy, and we need to make sure that we have the energy we need to meet our daily needs.”