How the Trump tax bill could help China win at A.I. - WaPo

[In It to Win It]

WaPo - Gift Link

Solar panels and wind turbines at the Huaneng Binzhou new energy power generation project in Binzhou, China, on June 11. (AFP/Getty Images)


Republicans in Congress produced a surprise winner this week when they axed hundreds of billions of dollars in federal clean-energy subsidies: China’s artificial intelligence industry.

China is pouring money into energy production to support its bid to dominate AI. America’s tech industry, meanwhile, has been scrounging for more energy to run power-hungry AI data centers and strongly urged Congress not to wipe out solar and wind tax credits.

Solar panels and windmills are the fastest-growing sources of power in the United States, accounting for 80 percent of new energy being added to the grid. Yet Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials remain intent on stifling clean energy progress in America, calling it Biden-era folly.

Now the consequences of the massive cuts in the GOP tax and budget bill are coming into focus. Modeling of the package by energy economists shows they will substantially reduce the amount of electricity added to the U.S. power grid in the coming years, even as China races ahead.

Wind and solar power “is critical in the near term,” said Ben King, director of the U.S. energy program at the Rhodium Group, a research firm that has developed projections of the bill’s impact. “This creates a risk that energy projects just won’t get built. At the same time, China is adding staggering electricity capacity.”

[Kid Berwyn]

1. MAGA working out great for America's adversaries.

Q: Why is that?

A: GOP greedheads are willing to sacrifice technological leadership, which translates directly to military superiority, in order to get a tax break.