Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Tuesday urged supporters of data centers at an Amazon Web Services conference to push back against critics, saying concerns about the facilities are “overblown.”

Wright listed concerns that opponents have raised about the boom in the facilities including water and power use and that the artificial intelligence they support will take away jobs and harm communities.

“These are the things that everyone is saying, and, right now in the polls, ⁠they are winning,” he said.

Wright, a former CEO of oil field service company Liberty Energy, likened the issue to opposition he faced ⁠over the drilling technique for oil and gas known as fracking.

“They cannot win, and they will not win,” Wright said.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll this month showed that only 1 in 3 Americans approve of the fast pace of data center construction, an issue on the minds of voters and political campaigns ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

Data center opponents are raising real issues including that artificial intelligence could enable “some bad things,” Wright said, without elaborating.

More here

Tagged: Energy BACK TO HOMEPAGE