In an opinion piece, Nathan Lord argues that America cannot lead in artificial intelligence without securing reliable energy sources, particularly natural gas. He highlights China's superior electricity generation and urges building data centers near fuel supplies in regions like the Shale Crescent. Without such measures, the US risks falling behind in the global AI competition.
Nathan Lord, president of the non-profit Shale Crescent USA, contends that the race for artificial intelligence dominance hinges not just on technological innovation but on energy infrastructure. Writing in The Daily Wire, Lord emphasizes that AI requires massive, continuous electricity, and nations providing power at scale, low cost, and high reliability will prevail in AI, manufacturing, and national security.
Lord points to China's advantage, noting that it generates more than twice the electricity of the United States and expands infrastructure faster than the US has in years. In contrast, US electricity demand is rising at a sustained rate for the first time in over 50 years. The Department of Energy projects a need for 50 to 150 gigawatts of new capacity in the next decade, likening it to the Manhattan Project.
Data centers, likened by Lord to 24/7 industrial factories, consume as much power as heavy facilities and demand uninterrupted baseload supply. He advocates prioritizing natural gas as the deployable, scalable, affordable fuel. More than 80% of US natural gas comes from the Gulf Coast and Shale Crescent—Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania—which together produce about one-third of the nation's gas and would rank as the world's third-largest producer if considered a single country.
Gas in the Shale Crescent is three to four times cheaper than in Europe or Asia. Lord warns that data centers face power shortages nationwide, with utilities imposing moratoria and queues extending a decade. He recommends siting new infrastructure atop fuel sources to cut costs, losses, and delays from long transmission lines.
"America cannot out-AI China if China out-powers the United States," Lord writes, calling natural gas a strategic asset requiring political will. The views are his own, not necessarily those of the publisher.
