When a new age dawns, it is rarely understood by those living through it. This universal truth is currently being demonstrated by the cascading consequences of artificial intelligence, which is already changing our society at warp speed.
Among many other startling impacts, in the realm of politics it is abundantly clear that A.I. is sounding the crack of doom for the foundational myth of progressive ideology: the alleged climate crisis.
Over the past 30 years the political Left worldwide has fervently espoused the “existential threat of climate change” as a master tool for manipulating and controlling governments and peoples throughout the West.
The central strategy for advancing this leftist agenda is the demonization and ultimate elimination of those fossil fuel emissions which are, according to the progressive narrative, are the cause of melting ice caps, rising seas, extreme weather, species extinctions, and the other related calamities.
Thus, the goal – to Save the Planet — can only be achieved if all future energy needs are met by renewables alone (e.g., wind, solar).
However, reality has always been the antithesis of this wholly implausible agenda, and in A.I. it finds its nemesis.
According to the Penn State Institute of Energy and the Environment “by 2030-35 A.I. data centers could account for 20% of global electricity use.” As of 2023 data centers consumed 4.4% of U.S. electricity, and that share is projected to triple by 2028.
Stanford University's recent Global A.I. Survey reported that the U.S. is the world leader in A.I. development with China a distant second, while noting that the U.S. has the potential to greatly widen that lead because its energy resources – if fully exploited – vastly exceed those of China.
The self-evident bottom line is that fossil fuel utilization–far from being ended–must be and will be immensely expanded. America and the world are waking to the realization that we can either have the green fantasy of a no-oil utopia or the transformative technologies of artificial intelligence, but we can’t have both. The footsteps you hear are those of a global stampede toward A.I.—energy-hungry though it may be.
The Trump administration has already taken bold steps to reverse the Biden administration's devastating “War on Fossil Fuels” that had aimed at fast-tracking the total conversion of the U.S. energy industry to a “Renewables Only” basis by 2050.
In an editorial (7/ 31/25) entitled "Liberation Day for American A.I.” the Wall Street Journal praised a recent report issued by the U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright which if implemented, it said, would “liberate innovators from burdensome regulations, bulldoze impediments to new data centers, and ‘hyperscale’ private investment in A.I."
In an earlier WSJ article (7/23/25) on the report –“Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate,”– Kimberly Strassel described the New York Times reaction as “foaming with indignation”in part because one of the report's authors had been the chief scientific officer of the Obama Energy Department.
For 20 of the last 32 years Democratic administrations greatly aided by a compliant media, an entrenched federal bureaucracy, and a left-leaning judiciary, vigorously pushed the climate crisis agenda as an "existential imperative “ that must be a leading national priority. This agenda also had a powerful international resonance via globalist networks, the United Nations, and a leftist European Union which regarded the Paris Climate Accord as its greatest achievement.
Opposition to the climate agenda during Republican intervals was tepid, divided, and often of a “me too, but not so fast” character. The most effective resistance came from Red State governments who stepped up to defend their energy industries which they viewed as indispensable to the American economy.
Now in a stunning reversal of fortune the new administration is moving aggressively to defeat the long-running Democratic strategies employed to destroy the fossil fuel industry – shutting down pipelines, banning fracking, closing the vast oil and gas resources of Alaska's ANWR region, drastically curtailing offshore drilling, and imposing a suffocating web of regulations.
Particularly infuriating to the climate zealots as related by the WSJ were the following findings of the U.S.D.O.E report:
1. the fallacy and political motivation of Democratic and U.N. climate “models”
2. absence of historical meteorological data supporting increased frequency or intensity of extreme weather.
3. minimal effect of climate change on the U.S. economy
4. negligible effect of climate policy on global temperatures , and…--
5. the world beyond Europe and the Anglosphere including India and China remains fully committed to basing their national development on fossil fuels.
This sudden American change of policy direction provides a beacon of hope for a beleaguered European Union which had plunged much further and faster down the road of energy self-mutilation than did the US. The EU dilemmas–compounded by the debilitating Ukraine war and uncontrolled illegal immigration–now gravely threatened the continent's political stability owing to shrinking economies and attendant popular unrest.
Just short years ago few people could imagine that A.I. would become the irresistible force that would overthrow the destructive doctrine of climate extremism and propel a new “Age of Reason” offering the promise of relief for struggling peoples across the world. Today that is the brighter future that lies ahead.
William Moloney studied history and politics at Oxford and the University of London and received his doctorate from Harvard University. His articles have appeared in the Wall St. Journal, USA Today, The Hill. The Washington Post, Washington Times. Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, Denver Post and Human Events.