Report: Energy Infrastructure in Dire Need of Reforms for our AI Future

America’s homes, businesses, and industries rely on the nation’s electric grid system, but that system faces big challenges. A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report examines one emerging, energy-intensive industry that could be hamstrung by inadequate energy infrastructure: artificial intelligence (AI).

“AI is poised to improve all our lives in countless ways, doing tasks like information gathering and number crunching that free up time for humans to achieve higher goals in healthcare, transportation, cybersecurity, and other crucial sectors of our economy,” said report coauthor James Broughel. “We need abundant energy sources to power the AI renaissance.”

“Insufficient power to meet new demand is a political, not technological, problem; and AI power demand is revealing the longstanding political problems in American electricity policy,” said Paige Lambermont, report coauthor and energy policy expert. “For AI to fully deliver on its transformative potential, we must eliminate government barriers to reliable power sources.”

The report identifies the energy-related problems of aging infrastructure exacerbated by increased demand and, more to the point, regulations that hasten the shutdown of reliable, on-demand power sources, particularly coal and nuclear plants, in favor of intermittent energy sources, like wind and solar.

The report also makes the case for meeting AI energy needs, delving into potential benefits for consumers, national security, the environment, agriculture, manufacturing, and even energy efficiency itself.

Congress and the administration should take steps to further enable domestic energy production, the report recommends. For example: reforming the energy permitting process, eliminating subsidies and price controls in the energy market, and relaxing anti-nuclear regulations.

Read the report, Powering Intelligence: Meeting AI’s energy needs in a changing electricity landscape, by James Broughel and Paige Lambermont