Trending Now
We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
An aerial view of an oil tanker and storage tanks at Exxon Mobil’s Beaumont oil refinery, which produces and packages Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil, in Beaumont, Texas, U.S., March 18, 2023.
Biden bans offshore drilling, and Trump’s hands are tied to stop it
With just 14 days left before he hands over the keys to Donald Trump, Joe Biden has banned offshore oil and drilling along almost the entirety of the US. The ban will cover the entire East Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the coast off of California, Oregon, and Washington, as well as a large part of Alaska.
The ban prevents companies from leasing new drilling along 625 million acres, which Ron Neal, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America Offshore Committee, said would limit the industry’s exploration of new projects, hurting its ability to survive in the long term.
In his announcement of the ban, Biden explained that he made the decision because “drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs.” Trump has called the ban “ridiculous.”
Won’t Trump just reverse it? Trump won the election promising to drop gas prices by reversing Biden’s environmental policies, increasing drilling, eliminating regulations, and supercharging America’s fossil fuel industry.
But he might not be able to “drill, baby, drill” so fast. Biden has passed the protections without an expiration date and has the authority to withdraw areas from drilling under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953. Back in 2017, Trump tried to reverse waters that had been protected under the Obama administration but was told by the courts that the act was irreversible by succeeding presidents.
Still, the ban could be reversed in other ways. An act of the Republican-controlled Congress could do the trick. Trump is also likely to challenge it despite the precedent, a decision that would spur a legal battle that would likely be decided by the Supreme Court, whose conservative majority hasn’t shied away from overturning environmental protections in recent terms.
LEDs light up in a server rack in a data center.
Electric Company and Water Works
The artificial intelligence boom has brought new strains on the environment, namely through demands on electricity and water. The International Energy Agency estimates that, by 2026, the rise of AI and cryptocurrency will lead to an increase in electricity used by global data centers—a figure that could range anywhere between a 35% and 128% increase.
But data centers run hot and use copious amounts of water to keep cool. According to a new preprint academic paper, global AI demand may account for 4.2-6.6 billion cubic meters of annual water withdrawal by 2027—that’s about half of the UK’s annual usage, according to the Financial Times.
Major technology companies are using more and more water just training their increasingly powerful generative AI models: Google and Microsoft self-reported annual water consumption increases of 20% and 34% respectively while training their models.
If AI continues on its current, staggering trajectory, it very well may push us closer to an energy crisis that’s impossible to ignore.