Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is pushing for the construction of new data centers to fuel the nation’s artificial intelligence ambitions in competition against China.
Mr. Burgum, who also leads President Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council, believes the U.S. has a technological advantage but “China is winning on electricity.”
He told the Daily Wire in an interview that the nation’s plan for energy dominance to surpass China will mean more than the mantra “drill, baby, drill.”
“We’re going to ’map, baby, map’ to figure out where all these resources are and then we’re going to ’mine, baby, mine’ so we can ’build, baby, build’ because we got to build AI data centers,” he said in an interview that aired Saturday.
Making sure America does not lose the global technological arms race is on the agenda for the National Energy Dominance Council, Mr. Burgum told the Hill & Valley Forum last week.
Mr. Trump founded the council to develop a plan to raise awareness of energy dominance and to advise the president about actions he can take under existing law to increase energy production.
The plan is due later this month, according to Mr. Trump’s executive order establishing the council. Mr. Burgum previewed the council’s views in remarks to a gathering of technologists and policymakers on Capitol Hill last week.
Mr. Burgum said America must stockpile critical minerals, the federal government needs to consider partnering with financiers to invest in certain companies, and the government needs to consider creating sovereign risk insurance.
“We’re working on a plan at NEDC where we’ve got to have sovereign risk insurance, not against a foreign country but against our own,” Mr. Burgum said, previewing a plan to prevent a future Democratic administration that might want to undo the council’s work.
“If you put capital into a project that’s related to fossil fuels or project related to critical minerals and mining, that if somebody comes along in a future administration with an executive order, if they want to wipe out what you’ve invested in, they’ve got to write you a check to pay you for your lost capital,” he explained.
Mr. Burgum said future administrations may have the executive authority to scrap pipeline projects with the stroke of a pen, but they should have to pay companies already working to fuel the U.S. economy.
The Trump administration is moving quickly to address the nation’s need for more energy because he said the government knows it is in a “huge, precarious position relative to China,” which would be a major cause for concern in the event of a hot conflict.
“We can win the AI arms race with China, we can have enough power to power our cities, we can build grid security, we can support all of you, and we can get back in the game where we’re not relying on imports for all of the things because we’ve shut down American development across all of our public lands,” Mr. Burgum said at the Hill & Valley Forum.
