AI Is Keeping Coal on Life Support

The fanciful, futuristic dream of an AI era has been powered by present-day energy all along. Increasingly, though, it looks like it’s going to be powered by yesterday’s energy too, by which I mean coal, an energy source with climate change externalities comparable to other combustible fuel, but with deadly effects on the local environment.

Now, according to a Politico report, itself drawn from a report by the think tank Frontier Group, utilities’ plans to retire 30 coal-burning…