Data Centres Consume 4.6% of US Electricity as Anti-Energy Backlash Shifts From Fossil Fuels to AI Infrastructure

Data Centres Consume 4.6% of US Electricity as Anti-Energy Backlash Shifts From Fossil Fuels to AI Infrastructure Tech emissions surged 50% at Google and 60% at Meta while natural gas powers 40% of US data centres, redirecting environmental advocacy toward AI. Data centres consumed about 4.6% of total US electricity in 2024, a share government estimates suggest could nearly triple by 2028, Fortune reported. Some analysts predict national electricity use rising as much as 20% in the next decade, with data centres the primary driver. The energy demand from artificial intelligence is measurable, growing, and colliding with grid capacity.⁵ Google's carbon emissions jumped nearly 50%. Amazon's rose 33%. Microsoft's climbed more than 23%. Meta's surged over 60%. Six years ago, Google was confident it would power all operations with clean energy by 2030. The company now calls that goal a moonshot. The gap between corporate climate pledges and actual emissions is widening as data centre construction outpaces renewable procurement.⁵ Natural gas accounted for more than 40% of electricity powering US data centres in 2024, the IEA reported. Coal supplied 30% globally. The AI industry's green credentials are undermined by the fuel mix of the grids it draws from. The same environmental advocacy that targeted fossil fuel companies is now targeting the infrastructure that consumes fossil-fuelled electricity.⁵ Within two years of ChatGPT's launch in 2022, around 40% of US and UK households reported using AI chatbots, the IEA said. Data centres account for more than 1% of global electricity use. Despite unprecedented improvements in efficiency per AI task, aggregate consumption keeps rising because usage grows faster than efficiency.^3,4 Google sought to rezone more than 450 acres in Franklin, Indiana, for a data centre campus. NPR reported on growing environmental pushback from communities against facilities consuming more power than cities.⁴ Battery storage firms see surging data centre interest but face lengthy grid connection queues and China-dependent supply chains, Reuters reported. The grid bottleneck is the binding constraint on expansion.⁷ Fluence Energy surged 98.2% in a single week on hyperscaler deals and a $5.6 billion backlog. Management reaffirmed $3.2-3.6 billion revenue guidance with 85% contracted. Q1 delivered positive adjusted EBITDA of $2.0 million with 52% non-GAAP gross margin. A secondary offering of 20 million shares at $21 triggered volatility.^2,1 The backlash represents the next phase of the ESG debate. When fossil fuels were the target, electrification was the answer. Now electrification is driving unprecedented demand, and environmental advocacy asks whether unlimited AI growth is compatible with climate commitments. Whether clean generation can be added faster than data centres add load determines the answer.^5,6