U.S. will fall behind in the AI race without natural gas, Williams

The U.S. will fall behind in the artificial intelligence race if it does not embrace natural gas to help meet surging electricity demand from data centers, the CEO of one of the nation’s largest pipeline operators told CNBC.

“The only way we’re going to be able to keep up with the kind of power demand and the electrification that’s already afoot is natural gas,” Williams Companies CEO Alan Armstrong said in an interview Thursday. “If we deny ourselves that we’re going to fall behind in the AI race.”

Williams Companies handles about one-third of the natural gas in the U.S. through a pipeline network that spans more than 30,000 miles. Williams’ network includes the 10,000 mile Transcontinental Pipeline, or Transco, a crucial artery that serves virtually the entire eastern seaboard including Virginia, the world’s largest data center hub, and fast growing Southeast markets such as Georgia.

The tech sector’s expansion of data centers to support AI and the adoption of electric vehicles is projected to add 290 terawatt hours of electricity demand by the end of the decade in the U.S., according to a recent report by the energy consulting firm Rystad. This load growth is equivalent to the entire electricity demand of Turkey, the world’s 18th largest economy.

Executives at some the nation’s largest utilities have warned that failure to meet this surging electricity demand will jeopardize not just the artificial intelligence revolution, but economic growth across the board in the U.S. The role natural gas in helping to meet that demand is controversial as the country is simultaneously trying to transition to a clean energy economy through the rapid expansion of renewables.

CEOs in the renewable industry believe solar, wind and battery storage will be preferred energy source for data centers as the tech sector is trying to achieve ambitious climate goals. The CEOs of Dominion Energy and Southern Company, the utilities that serve the Virginia data center hub and the fast growing Atlanta market, have said natural gas and nuclear need to play a role in backing up renewable power when weather conditions are not at their peak.

“We are going to run right up against a brick wall here and pretty quickly in terms of not having enough power available to do what we want to do on the AI side,” Armstrong said.

“I actually see this as a huge national security issue,” the CEO said. “We’re going to have to get out of our own way or we’re going to accidentally keep ourselves from being the power we can be in the AI space.”

Some of the largest independent data center developers, which build the infrastructure that houses servers for other companies, have approached Williams to receive natural gas capacity directly from the company’s pipelines, Armstrong said.

“Those…