ICYMI: Want to lead in AI? Then don’t kill wind and solar.

Washington, D.C. – Matt Eggers, a venture capitalist, penned an opinion piece that ran today in the Washington Post detailing the ways in which the Republican Rate Hike that’s included in the One Big Beautiful Bill that the U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote on, will hand a forfeit to China in the race to lead in AI and technology globally. He writes that with data‑center energy demand projected to triple by 2030, “the nation that leads in AI will lead in defense, commerce and scientific discovery. That leadership will belong to whoever can supply the cheapest continuous power, which means tapping every viable resource, especially those that can be deployed the fastest and cheapest.”  

Key points

• Beijing pursues energy dominance by every means available: Chinese investment in low-carbon energy innovation reached approximately $940 billion in 2024… Gutting these energy tax credits would concede even more of the projected $130 trillion global clean‑energy market and put domestic jobs and national security at risk.
• Supporters of repealing the incentives point out that the Senate would still encourage nuclear and geothermal projects… But the required geothermal technology is just reaching pilot scale, and breaking ground today on a new reactor may not produce a single kilowatt for five to seven years.
• Wind and solar farms, by contrast, can be built in under 24 months and remain the cheapest new power on the grid. A widely-cited 2024 analysis of cost competitiveness across various energy generation technologies places onshore wind at $37 to $86 per megawatt-hour and utility‑scale solar at $38 to $78; even the most efficient new gas plants land higher, at $48 to $109. 

“The energy tax provisions are not ideological trophies; they are practical tools that underpin U.S. technological leadership. Stripping them would choke off capital, stall construction and concede the AI century to countries that understand energy arithmetic.”