The chasm between Progressives’ fantasies and the real world continues to widen.

According to Daniel Moore at Axios, the Department of Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm is “emphatically” confident that the big government business model will be able to meet the “skyrocketing” demand for electricity, in large part because due to the mandates and laws the “net zero” transition, data centers, and AI consumption.

From Moore’s item:

Granholm confident in quenching AI’s energy thirst

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm wants you to know her agency is doing everything it can to prepare the country to meet rising demand from energy-guzzling AI data centers.

Why it matters: After years of flattish demand growth, the power sector is confronting a skyrocketing thirst for power.

…

‘We emphatically say at the Department of Energy that yes, yes we will’ have enough energy for AI, Granholm told reporters Friday.

All of reality suggests otherwise.

First of all, to address the obvious: Since when have progressives ever had an intelligent political thought, let alone contributed positively to society? I can recall one time—when Soviet communists developed the AK-47.

But secondly, Granholm’s assertion is just plain delusion, ignorance, or dishonesty. University of Michigan researchers recently published their findings that copper mines cannot produce enough material for current consumption, let alone national and global transitions to “all-electric.” And, here are some details about projected needs, from Moore:

• Rising demand factored into an 800% increase in forward-looking capacity prices, PJM, the country’s largest regional grid operator announced July 30.

• AI-related power demand alone is projected to grow to 9% of US energy consumption by 2030, up from 4% in 2023, according to the Electric Power Research Institute.

As Moore also reports, Granholm and other bureaucrats are operating under the assumption that the “electricity demand by 2050” is expected to “double” because of “climate” mandates and legislation, e.g. “growth in electric vehicles” and the “electrification of homes” (read: bans on gas stoves and internal combustion engines, efficient appliances, and A/C units). According to Granholm, “the equivalent of 300 new Hoover Dams” will be needed to meet the “climate goals” of the left. (A whole lot of education all those critical race theorists and gender studies experts will bring to the market!)

The irony is that AI and data centers have a massive “carbon footprint,” one of the biggest for any industry, especially one that is arguably expendable—seems like we need lights on in our homes and gas-cars more than we need ChatGPT or NSA warehouses—but that doesn’t matter to Granholm because it’s not really about a cleaner and greener future.

Most importantly though, the progressive Democrats have an established and terrible track record, so what gives?

Image: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr, unaltered.