Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum advocated increased use of fossil fuels to power artificial intelligence advancements, calling losing to China in the race for artificial intelligence arms the current biggest “existential threat” to the United States. [emphasis, links added]
“We need more electricity to win the AI arms race against China,” Burgum said, emphasizing the administration’s stance on securing more baseload power Friday during Semafor‘s World Economy Summit in Washington, D.C.
Burgum said the U.S. risks letting China get ahead on AI if it continues following past administrations’ strategies of focusing on the accelerated phaseout of fossil fuels such as coal and spending on renewable energy.
He said the pursuit of clean energy also puts Americans at a higher risk of grid failure, as renewables and battery storage technologies have yet to meet growing energy demand.
Burgum said this is a greater risk than that posed by global warming, which is fueled by carbon and methane emissions that can be traced back to the burning of fossil fuels.
“Part of that destabilization, again, is this massive investment that we’ve made in intermittent [energy]… in some of the same mistakes that Britain, Germany and others have made with the idea … built around a premise that the biggest existential threat to the world is a degree of temperature change [by] 2100,” Burgum said.
“When the real existential threat that we’re facing is perhaps around getting a nuclear weapon or losing the AI arms race to China,” he continued.
Burgum said an “incredible regulatory regime” has attempted to drive out baseload power created by fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas in favor of what he described as “heavily tax-subsidized intermittent sources.”
“That is the same mistake that Germany made. It’s a mistake that Britain’s made,” Burgum said. “I mean that you’d lose your steel industry, you deindustrialize. And in a world where we need electricity to win the AI arms race. It actually would be catastrophic for our country to continue down that path.”
While Burgum echoed Friday the president’s disapproval of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, he insisted the White House hasn’t shown “any hostility” toward renewables.
However, Burgum conceded there is “hostility” or concern over whether the U.S. has “gone too far” with subsidies offered for intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar.
“The wind doesn’t blow 24 hours a day, the sun doesn’t shine 24 hours a day,” Burgum said.
Top photo by Yuriy Vertikov on Unsplash
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