Today, I dive deep into natural gas, particularly focusing on how data centers’ electricity demand and LNG exports are shaping up to be a surprise for the US. I might be wrong, but if so, it’s only because the data we’ve got to work with is wrong. Otherwise, the US is without a functioning energy strategy that is grounded in reality.
Here’s the scoop:
AS we’ve discussed frequently of late, data centers are sprouting up at an astonishing rate, and they’re massive electricity hogs. The question I keep asking is, where’s all this electricity going to come from? We’re already seeing grid instability, and with the push away from coal and with nuclear being a long, slow process, it’s clear the demand is going to be met by natural gas.
In 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy put out a big, fat report on LNG exports, but the skipped right over the part where they carefully analyzed the natural gas supply and whether it could supply all the needs of the country plus LNG exporters. The report had extensive sections about carbon impacts, which are completely irrelevant to the question of whether or not a country should rip is precious NG out of the ground so fast the only thing left to do with it is to expend hiuge amounts of energy to turn it into a liquid to ship elsehweree for…paper promise tickets – a.k.a. “dollars.”
Of course you shouldn’t do that from a carbon perspective, or any other perspective.
by cmartenson 
