Join the Pacific Council on Wednesday, October 15, at 8 am PT, to explore the impact of increasing global dependence on AI and the loosening of climate regulatory policy in the U.S. with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (BBB). The audience will hear from Samantha Gross, Director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative and a Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. 

The rapid deployment of AI, powered by energy-intensive data centers, is a cause of environmental harm, with data centers relying on massive amounts of electricity to operate. The BBB undercuts renewable incentives and increases fossil fuel expansion through carbon capture loopholes, giving less incentive for data centers to operate using clean energy, while also decreasing the availability of safety nets for people whose jobs may be impacted by AI. By not investing in sustainable pathways to support AI technology, the U.S. risks falling behind globally in terms of technological adaptation and advancement. 

Why it’s important:

• If state regulations are to be lifted on the usage of AI in the U.S., the electricity use in data centers for AI purposes will add more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than Japan does annually, or three times the yearly total from the UK.
• If clean energy becomes an uneconomical investment, there is concern that AI firms will turn to the use of fossil fuels, which significantly slows the building process for data centers. There is a huge shortage of natural gas turbines in the U.S. right now, with waiting times doubling in the past year.
• With the passage of the BBB, the amount of public money the U.S. will now spend on domestic fossil fuels stands at about $34.8 billion a year.
• Some predict that the result of slower data center builds in the U.S. will put the country at a disadvantage in terms of innovation against countries like China, who invest in solar and wind energy, and the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which invest heavily in the creation of data centers. 

Please send questions in advance to events@pacificcouncil.org.

To register for this webinar, visit the Zoom Registration Page.

Guest Speaker

Samantha Gross is the Director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution. Her work is focused on the intersection of energy, environment, and policy.

Prior to Brookings, Ms. Gross was the Director of the Office of International Climate and Clean Energy at the US Department of Energy and Director of Integrated Research at IHS CERA. She has been a Brookings Robert Bosch Foundation Transatlantic Fellow in Berlin and a Visiting Fellow at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh.

Ms. Gross holds a BS in Chemical Engineering, an MS in Environmental Engineering, and an MBA.

 

To register for this webinar, visit the Zoom Registration Page.