This piece originally appeared in Compact.
The American power industry is racing to keep up with the AI boom. Microsoft, xAI, OpenAI, and Meta have all announced ambitious data-center projects that have sent utility stocks soaring. The need to meet this soaring demand gives Donald Trump the chance to go down in history as the energy president. He campaigned on cheap power prices and “energy dominance,” and installed a highly capable engineer, Chris Wright, as energy secretary.
However, a combination of inherited problems and severe missteps have instead jeopardized America’s position as the global energy titan, posing a significant, but so far widely unacknowledged, threat to the administration’s agenda.
Before Trump took office, America’s grid had already entered into a period of decline. In 2021, winter storm Uri killed hundreds in Texas as the Lone Star State blacked out. Just a year later, blackouts hit the southeast over Christmas, and Manhattan lost almost all gas pressure in its pipeline system. Our grid reliability watchdog, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, and grid operators like the Midcontinent Independent System Operator have warned that our current energy pathway is making the power system dangerously fragile.
