Perspectives

A new BNEF forecast predicts U.S. data center electricity demand will surge to 194 gigawatts by 2035, an 83% increase from its forecast of just eight months ago. Hyperscale data centers installed to date are already causing significant environmental and financial harm, and this projected growth could cause much greater damage. Fortunately, a powerful new environmental movement is emerging and is well-positioned to win policy guardrails. 

By Eric de Place and Julia Stone

It’s been nearly five years since Shell’s massive ethane cracker launched operations near Monaca in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The chemical-to-plastics plant was once touted by boosters as a “renaissance” for the region’s economy, but those promises have utterly failed to materialize. 

The latest federal economic data show unequivocally that Beaver County is falling behind the nation, the state, and its neighboring counties by nearly every measure of performance. In fact, after Shell announced plans to build in 2012, the county seems to have gone into an economic slide with absolute declines in GDP, jobs, population, and businesses – the exact opposite of what project backers said would happen. 

Pension trustees have a fiduciary duty to assess these and other strategies for mitigating systemic climate risks to their portfolios. Once they conclude that the tech industry’s energy-intensive and fossil fuel-reliant strategy for data center buildout is generating systemic risks that can be averted with a shift in strategic direction, it is their duty to seize the opportunity to help bring about that shift.