Opinion: New Data Centers Won't Drain US Water Supply
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, the author refutes Senator Bernie Sanders' proposal for a federal moratorium on data center construction, arguing that halting innovation would merely shift investment to competitors like China. The article contends that while data centers do consume water for cooling and indirectly through electricity generation—totaling roughly 17 billion gallons directly and 211 billion gallons indirectly in 2023—the scale is manageable compared to other national issues. Specifically, the author highlights that the U.S. loses over two trillion gallons of water annually to leaky pipes, a problem far more significant than data center usage. The piece concludes that pausing AI infrastructure development is an ineffective strategy that ignores broader water management challenges.
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Opinion: New Data Centers Won't Drain US Water Supply
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, the author refutes Senator Bernie Sanders' proposal for a federal moratorium on data center construction, arguing that halting innovation would merely shift investment to competitors like China. The article contends that while data centers do consume water for cooling and indirectly through electricity generation—totaling roughly 17 billion gallons directly and 211 billion gallons indirectly in 2023—the scale is manageable compared to other national issues. Specifically, the author highlights that the U.S. loses over two trillion gallons of water annually to leaky pipes, a problem far more significant than data center usage. The piece concludes that pausing AI infrastructure development is an ineffective strategy that ignores broader water management challenges.
WSJ.com: US Business