(The Center Square) – At the AI Horizons summit in Pittsburgh Thursday, legislators, executives and educators met to discuss the future of artificial intelligence in the commonwealth.
Top of mind was the technology’s “insatiable appetite for energy.”
For both Democrats and Republicans, it seemed, the solution to the energy question was right here in Pennsylvania, buried underground in the Marcellus Shale, the largest natural gas formation in the United States.
Speakers had different thoughts about the degree to which the gas should be used and balanced with other sources of energy, with some emphasizing the state’s strong nuclear portfolio. All agreed, however, that if there’s any hope of keeping consumer energy rates down, it lies in expanding the state’s energy production.
For those living where that energy is produced, it’s not so simple. Before the summit was even underway, protestors gathered outside, carrying signs that said “Gas data centers mean we are fracked,” and “Gas data centers frack our families.”
Gillian Graber, Executive Director of Protect PT, pointed out the positive potential for AI but called on Gov. Josh Shapiro to remember the findings of the grand jury investigation during his own tenure as Attorney General. The report highlighted the public health dangers caused by fracking and emphasized that the practice should not be done near where people live.
“We don’t want this new innovation to be powered by something that’s outdated and harming the communities that we live in,” said Graber. She listed the day-to-day experience near fracking sites. “Tons of water consumption, dirty air, noise, light, tons of pollution, radioactive fracking, waste filled trucks on our roads – our rural roads that are not made for such giant vehicles.”
Graber’s experience in Westmoreland County isn’t unique. Lois Bower-Bjornson, field director for Clean Air Council, lives in Washington County, the most heavily fracked in the state. She says she gets calls every day from individuals in her community who have suffered diagnoses as a result of environmental pollution. In addition to the fracking in her community, she says her children go to school near a petrochemical hub, a styrofoam plant, and a nuclear plant.
“We’re not in the room,” Bower-Bjornson told The Center Square, highlighting the divide between the public perspective and political will. “You sort of think, when is the cancer going to hit you?”
Some members of the state legislature have pushed for laws enabling the Department of Environmental Protection to consider the cumulative effect of multiple industries in a given area before issuing permits. As it stands, new developments are approved based on their individual output as pollutants. This means, there is no protection against setting up several environmentally hazardous industries in a small area.
Environmental justice zones, which take into account the impact of industry on vulnerable communities, were targeted at the federal level by President Donald Trump’s executive orders on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The commonwealth continues to monitor these areas through its own Department of Environmental Protection programs.
Beyond the extraction of fossil fuels, AI evangelists have also been reckoning with the impact of their use on climate change. “Unleashing” natural gas resources stored within the earth has been a common call, especially among Republicans at the state and federal levels. To do so, legislators must discern between “unnecessary red tape” and important environmental guard rails.
“Let’s face it, Pennsylvania is a corporation, and we have to sell our product,” said Sen. Devlin Robinson, R-Pittsburgh. “Our product in that package that we’re selling will need to be how are we going to be able to power those facilities, and we’re going to say, you know, we have the largest – or second largest – natural gas formation in the world.”
Toby Rice, president and CEO of EQT Corporation, a major natural gas producer in the region, said that his company has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 35% and achieved “one of the lowest methane intensities of any natural gas producers in the world,” a nod to the broader concerns raised by the climate impact of the increased use of fossil fuels.
Politicians on the left have advocated for an “all of the above” energy policy, one which hopes to build renewable energy resources without alienating the state’s deep and lucrative interests in the fossil fuel industry.
Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Pittsburgh, agreed with Robinson about the need to maximize the state’s energy output but noted the need to take into account both the environmental and economic impact of data centers and their energy demands.
“We’ve got to be mindful that, again, costs cannot be solely borne by the ratepayers,” said Costa. “We know this year we’re already seeing a 20% increase.”
To address that increase, Shapiro took on PJM, the state’s power grid, to cap energy prices. For additional power to offset increased demand, the governor has been bullish on nuclear, an industry which is capitalizing on and profiting from new developments in AI.
“We are deploying nuclear energy to power AI. We’re using AI to power nuclear energy,” said Dan Sumner, interim CEO at Westinghouse, which has been a frontrunner in the revitalization of the nuclear industry.
Ian Andrews, chief revenue officer at Groq, said that the projected energy growth for the U.S. over the next decade “just isn’t enough,” and called for tapping into the state’s resources to meet the existential threat posed by the AI race.
“Why is this existential?” asked Andrews. “We’ve now reached the point of technological progress where we can turn electricity into intelligence.”
