AI’s Carbon Problem Is Really a Grid Problem

Data centers are getting blamed for America’s rising carbon emissions. I mean, of course they are. Old-school, anti-growth environmentalists seem willing to toss any criticism possible at the warehouse-sized supercomputers.

They use too much power! They use too much water! They generate too much pollution! The charge is wildly overblown. Yes, US greenhouse-gas emissions climbed an estimated 2.4 percent in 2025, reversing two years of decline. But a new analysis from the Rhodium Group points to a familiar culprit: cold weather.

Emissions from buildings jumped 6.8 percent as furnaces ran harder, while higher natural-gas prices pushed utilities to burn more coal, lifting coal generation 13 percent and power-sector emissions 3.8 percent. Data centers did play a role, but a limited one. Rhodium