US President Donald Trump has established a new energy council to tackle the growing electricity demands, aiming to strengthen the country’s position in its artificial intelligence (AI) competition with China.
“We’re going to be energy dominant like nobody else, and this doesn’t even cover all the electricity we’re going to be producing for all the AI plants,” Trump told reporters as he signed the order.
“They need at least double the electricity we have right now,” he added.
Trump’s Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, who also attended the signing, said, “The US is in an AI arms race with China. The only way we win is with more electricity.”
According to the White House, the council will coordinate energy policy across federal agencies and streamline permitting, production, and distribution of various energy resources.
The move aligns with Trump’s campaign promise of “drill, baby, drill,” boosting domestic oil and gas production while disregarding concerns from the Biden administration about carbon emissions or climate change impacts.
The decision also aims to counter potential rising costs from Trump’s trade policies, as tariffs on energy imports or US exports could drive prices higher.
The AI industry’s electricity demands are soaring, with data centers already straining the country’s overburdened power supply.
The US energy sector has suffered from chronic underinvestment, worsened by the shutdown of aging nuclear plants.
Tech CEOs have been lobbying the Trump administration to prioritize energy supply to support AI development.
By 2028, officials estimate that AI training energy demands could reach as much as five gigawatts, enough to power approximately five million homes.
