Washington, D.C. – On the same day that the Department of Energy cancelled a loan for a shovel-ready transmission project that would improve grid reliability and national security, the Trump Administration released its latest Executive Order on artificial intelligence that calls for improving the nation’s electric transmission system. The announcement also removes longstanding environmental safeguards for data center development, including the National Environmental Policy Act reviews and other environmental protections critical to public health for hundreds of millions of people and our shared environment.
The Sierra Club continues to review the extent of the announcement today.
Statement from Laurie Williams Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign:
“The Trump administration is blatantly seizing on AI and data center load growth as an excuse to justify his expensive fossil bailout agenda. This gross mismanagement of our country’s energy needs will increase power bills for hundreds of millions of people while making the electricity grid less reliable. Trump is doing this in the name of tech companies with clean energy commitments, so now is the time for Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft to protect the average American family from the massive money grab happening by the administration and utilities on behalf of fossil fuel companies.”
Background on the dual announcements today:
The AI announcement states, regarding transmission:
Optimize existing grid resources as much as possible. This involves implementing strategies to enhance the efficiency and performance of the transmission system. The United States must explore solutions like advanced grid management technologies and upgrades to power lines that can increase the amount of electricity transmitted along existing routes.
Regarding the Grain Belt Express transmission project, the Missouri Public Service Commission noted in its approval that:
Need is also evident in that the Project is needed for reliability and resiliency of the grid and for national security. And by increasing the size of the transmission capacity and adding the Tiger Connector, including moving the converter station and AC line, the Project will bring the interconnectivity to multiple regions to improve the reliability and resiliency of the grid for Missourians and in the interest of national security. This will help guard against price spikes and outages such as those experienced by Winter Storm Uri and Elliot.
