The US energy secretary said that a lot of concerns about data centers are real but “overblown.”
At an Amazon Web Services conference on Tuesday, Chris Wright urged supporters of data centers to push back on those who criticize their development because of environmental concerns and job losses.
“The pluses are way bigger than the minuses,” he said. “So please keep driving hard, keep driving these improvements in our country.”
Wright added that more data centers are the path to lower-cost electricity, and water consumption is “tiny” compared to their benefits.
“There’s probably no higher value use of water, full stop, than there is water for these data centers,” he said.
The energy chief compared the data center debate to the anti-fracking campaign 15 years ago and said that the same fear-inducing tactics are being deployed to worry people.
“Right now in the polls, they’re winning. They cannot win, and they will not win,” Wright said. “We will win this argument, just as we did with fracking.”
A Gallup survey of 1,000 adults in the US published in May found that seven in 10 respondents opposed constructing data centers for AI in their local area. Nearly half said they were “strongly opposed” to construction.
Data center construction in the US has skyrocketed. By the end of last year, more than 1,400 had been built or approved for build outs. They have become increasingly divisive due to their impact on the environment, including their water and energy use.
Business Insider’s reporting last year found that the rapid buildout of AI-driven data centers is quickly reshaping local communities. Large-scale campuses place heavy demands on water supplies in drought-prone regions and use diesel generators that harm air quality.
Business Insider’s investigations also found that communities neighboring these data centers struggle to understand the scale and scope of the project because of opaque ownership structures.
Canadian entrepreneur turned TV personality Kevin O’Leary is among the business leaders vocally supporting data centers. He has doubled down on his investments in this sector and has been trying to change public perception, saying they are critical for the AI economy.
“We’re in a global competition, an economic competition, a military competition, and certainly a technological competition,” O’Leary told Business Insider earlier this month. “We’ve got to keep our chops because we have led the world in this economy for 250 years.”
