The piece examines how a new, government-led AI push dubbed the Genesis Mission will sharply increase electricity demand and pressure regional grids already short on dispatchable power, highlighting Texas as a cautionary example and arguing that conservative energy policy must focus on building reliable generation to protect consumers and national competitiveness.
National grid planners are raising alarms about the winter ahead because growth in energy-intensive AI facilities is outpacing the availability of truly dispatchable power. Reports show several major grids now lack the baseload muscle needed when wind and solar dip during extreme weather. That gap is not theoretical; it creates a real risk of rolling blackouts when demand spikes.
const observer = new MutationObserver((mutations) => { const adDivToHide = document.querySelector("#dailycaller_incontent_1"); if (adDivToHide && dc_noads_page) { adDivToHide.classList.add("hide-premium", "hide-free"); observer.disconnect(); console.log("Ad div found and hidden"); } }); observer.observe(document.body, { childList: true, subtree: true });Texas shows exactly how quickly things can go wrong when demand surges and dispatchable plants are scarce. In February 2021 the system failed under cold weather when intermittent sources faltered and thermal resources were unavailable. That tragedy should be a permanent lesson: ideological experiments that take reliable generation off the table invite disaster.
State leaders in Texas deserve credit for reforms that try to harden operations and market signals since that winter, but gaps remain. ERCOT still faces trouble when extreme conditions remove wind and solar from service while demand rises. The expansion of large-scale AI computing centers makes these stresses immediate, not distant.
(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=739c4263-c671-4316-b7cf-ecd244900844&cid=9c4d09f1-aa3e-4da1-ad63-362d562ecfad'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "739c4263-c671-4316-b7cf-ecd244900844" }).render("59f64f116598417b8d610477330f5a3e"); });The federal response is bold and unapologetically ambitious: a national effort to accelerate AI development by pooling federal scientific datasets into an integrated platform. The Genesis Mission aims to give U.S. innovators a decisive edge over rivals and to marshal technology toward economic and security gains. The executive order lays out the aim in forceful language, promising sweeping benefits to science, security, and productivity.
“The Genesis Mission will dramatically accelerate scientific discovery, strengthen national security, secure energy dominance, enhance workforce productivity, and multiply the return on taxpayer investment into research and development, thereby furthering America’s technological dominance and global strategic leadership.” That sentence is not spin. It’s a clear, public commitment to mobilize federal data and talent behind transformational AI. Republicans should celebrate a plan that treats American leadership and economic strength as priorities.
const observer2 = new MutationObserver((mutations) => { const adDivToHide2 = document.querySelector("#dailycaller_incontent_2"); if (adDivToHide2 && dc_noads_page) { adDivToHide2.classList.add("hide-premium", "hide-free"); observer2.disconnect(); console.log("Ad div2 found and hidden"); } }); observer2.observe(document.body, { childList: true, subtree: true });But there’s an obvious, unavoidable side effect: powering that leap requires vast new electricity supplies. Training models, running inference at scale, and maintaining huge data farms are power hungry enterprises that will push demand curves upward. Leaders who back technological muscle must also back the physical infrastructure that powers it.
const observer3 = new MutationObserver((mutations) => { const adDivToHide3 = document.querySelector("#dailycaller_incontent_3"); if (adDivToHide3 && dc_noads_page) { adDivToHide3.classList.add("hide-premium", "hide-free"); observer3.disconnect(); console.log("Ad div found and hidden"); } }); observer3.observe(document.body, { childList: true, subtree: true });That reality points to a simple conservative case: if America wants technological dominance, we must secure energy dominance first. Building permitting reforms, incentivizing new thermal and nuclear capacity, and ensuring grid operators can meet peak needs are not optional. Without that investment, the promise of national AI leadership will be undercut by routine blackouts and fragile infrastructure.
Policymakers should treat this as an opportunity to align market incentives with reliability instead of ceding the consequences to consumers. The Genesis Mission is a great strategic move, but strategy without the fuel to run it is comic. Conservatives can support powerful technology while insisting on pragmatic energy policies that keep the lights on and the nation competitive.
