Anthropic struck a deal with a Texas-based energy company for gas-fired engines meant to provide AI data centers with electricity.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 5 points 1 day ago (1 child)

That's only half the quote

The US power sector would emit 2.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2030, after factoring in planned AI projects, which is 618 million tons more than 2025 levels, or about a 42% increase.

So the estimated total increase is 618 million tons

The bulk of the expected emissions by 2030 would come from sources that are not directly linked to the grid, often built by tech companies to avoid the long wait for a connection. These could exceed 460 million tons, Fisher said, roughly the same as the annual emissions of Mexico.

So over 460 million tons of the 618 estimate is primarily datacenters, nearly 3x of the rest of the country, which is only using 158 tons more.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 0 points 1 day ago*

    Sure, data centres using off grid generation seems to be a large source of increase of emissions, but calling a part of 460 million tonnes (I assume that given that it says often built for tech companies means not all are) 2100 million tonnes is bad journalism. Inflating numbers when the true ones are bad enough just hurts your credibility.

  • source
  • parent