Texas Energy Crunch to Worsen as Trump Policies Target Solar and Wind Power | Hacker News Reader

Texas Energy Crunch to Worsen as Trump Policies Target Solar and Wind Power

bloomberg.com

11 pointsvoxadam4 comments

You'd think the USA would at least embrace energy from all possible means at once. Energy availability allows energy consumption and larger/faster economies require more energy. But competition between interests in the source of energy drive problems like this. Though it's not clear what the economic value of blockchain and AI data centers really is (spend $T to make slop videos and write code a bit faster?).

Nope, they see the oil money as the important thing, and renewables aren't in their portfolios. The bigger economy and end-users are immaterial.

See also what happened when Stephen Harper became PM of Canada: they stopped science funding that didn't appeal to their interests and even auctioned off the data (the libraries of actual collected statistics) from various research stations.

Profit above all else. New renewables are the cheapest form of energy, even when accounting for battery storage. While data centers are a component in rising prices, so is regulatory capture [1] by utilities and the desire to squeeze as much return from fossil fuels before they are stranded assets [2].

> and larger/faster economies require more energy.

Until generative AI, electrical demand had not been increasing [3]. This might change if and when the generative AI bubble pops, although growth will still increase over time at a slower pace as the US economy electrifies (albeit slower than it otherwise would have).

> In our latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, we forecast U.S. annual electricity consumption will increase in 2025 and 2026, surpassing the all-time high reached in 2024. This growth contrasts with the trend of relatively flat electricity demand between the mid-2000s and early 2020s. Much of the recent and forecasted growth in electricity consumption is coming from the commercial sector, which includes data centers, and the industrial sector, which includes manufacturing establishments.

> U.S. electricity consumption was essentially flat for nearly two decades. Electricity demand increases generally associated with population growth and economic growth were offset by efficiency improvements and other structural changes in the economy, such as the transition from manufacturing to service sectors that tend to consume less energy. Total electricity consumption includes sales to ultimate customers in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors, and—to a lesser extent—sales to public transportation customers and the direct use of electricity at industrial facilities that produce power.

[1] https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/data-centers-arent-the-ma...

[2] https://prospect.org/environment/2025-06-05-texas-legislatur...

[3] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=65264

Reply on news.ycombinator.com