{"slug": "break-obamas-energy-shackles-and-free-americas-future", "title": "Break Obama’s energy shackles — and free America’s future", "summary": "The United States must rescind Obama-era energy regulations to secure the abundant electricity needed for AI data centers, as global competitors invest heavily in AI infrastructure. The author argues that outdated policies restricting coal and fossil fuels hinder America's ability to power the AI boom, citing Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google's nuclear energy deals as evidence of industry demand.", "body_md": "Hundreds of billions of dollars are being invested by every major economy around the world in the race to dominate artificial intelligence — but none of it will matter without the energy needed to run it.\n\nEvery AI breakthrough will depend on data centers and computing infrastructure that consume enormous amounts of electricity.\n\nIn the age of AI, energy is king.\n\nUnfortunately for the United States, much of the federal regulatory framework still governing American energy production is mired in [outdated and misguided Obama-era rules](https://nypost.com/2026/02/10/opinion/trumps-about-to-cancel-obamas-most-outrageous-power-grab/).\n\nIn 2009, President Barack Obama’s administration issued its notorious endangerment finding for greenhouse gases.\n\nThis ruling declared fossil-fuel emissions to be dangerous to public health, opening the door to federal regulation.\n\nIt became the legal foundation for the next decade’s war on coal-fired powered generation and some of the most aggressive federal restrictions ever imposed on America’s power sector.\n\nReflecting leftist climate orthodoxy, it aimed to force America to reduce energy consumption and eliminate energy sources that had fueled our prosperity for generations.\n\nThose assumptions have aged remarkably poorly.\n\nIf America intends to win the AI race, it can no longer afford Obama-era policies designed to push some of its most reliable and abundant sources of energy out of the market.\n\nThat’s why President Donald Trump must rescind the federal power-plant regulations, in effect since 2009, that were established under the endangerment finding’s aegis.\n\nThere’s precedent for this: In February, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin [rescinded similar regulations](https://nypost.com/2026/02/12/us-news/trump-lee-zeldin-announce-largest-deregulatory-action-in-american-history/) related to vehicle emissions.\n\nApplying the same logic to electricity generation would remove one of the largest regulatory obstacles standing in the way of the abundant, affordable power America will desperately need in the decades ahead.\n\nThe United States currently possesses an estimated 249 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves worth trillions of dollars — and containing enough electricity-generation potential to power American industry for years.\n\nAdvances in plant design and emissions-control technology have made coal-based power significantly cleaner than ever before.\n\nExasperatingly, instead of harnessing this remarkable resource, the US remains beholden to the 2009 activist-driven finding that was designed to eliminate fossil fuels, no matter the costs for affordable and reliable electricity.\n\nThe activists’ goal at the time wasn’t cleaner natural gas or improved energy production.\n\nThey wanted to replace those sources altogether with heavily subsidized wind and solar projects that have failed to deliver the reliable, abundant electricity their advocates promised.\n\nIn fact, [states like California and New York](https://nypost.com/2026/01/23/opinion/kathy-hochul-mikie-sherrill-are-dreaming-if-they-think-nuclear-power-will-solve-their-energy-woes/) spent years rushing to retire traditional power generation sources — and now find themselves being forced to extend the life of existing plants and embrace nuclear power as their pricey wind and solar projects fail to keep the lights on.\n\nWith electricity demand climbing to new highs and the AI boom only just beginning, the last thing America should do is bet its economic future on whether or not the wind happens to be blowing and the sun happens to be shining.\n\nThose spending billions to build the AI economy have already reached that conclusion.\n\nMeta is partnering with Oklo to [build a 1.2 gigawatt nuclear power plant](https://nypost.com/2026/01/09/business/mark-zuckerbergs-meta-makes-bet-on-nuclear-power-to-fuel-ai-ambitions/) in Ohio.\n\nMicrosoft, Amazon and Google have all [signed major agreements](https://nypost.com/2025/08/19/tech/google-strikes-major-nuclear-power-deal-to-fuel-ai-data-centers-with-50-megawatt-capacity/) for nuclear and other reliable base-load power sources.\n\nThey’re making those investments because they know, better than anyone, that weather-dependent energy sources alone cannot support the data centers and computing infrastructure AI will require.\n\nThe reality is that America will need far more electricity, from every reliable source capable of delivering it, in the near-term future.\n\nThat includes coal, natural gas and nuclear.\n\nWith our national security and economic future on the line, the country will need far more of all three.\n\nRescinding the Obama power-plant regulations would help make that possible, by removing one of the most significant barriers to American energy dominance — and Trump and Zeldin could do it immediately.\n\nBut extending the endangerment-finding rollback to power plants isn’t enough to secure America’s energy future: Congress must act, too.\n\nOur legislators must [codify the change into law](https://nypost.com/2025/12/10/opinion/democrats-will-strangle-ai-with-woke-rules-unless-trump-acts-now/) to prevent a future alarmist administration from restoring it.\n\nThe energy policies needed to support AI require long-term solutions that last beyond a single presidential term.\n\nThe [nations that lead the AI age](https://nypost.com/2026/01/23/opinion/elon-musk-discusses-life-on-mars-and-how-ai-will-be-smarter-than-humans-this-year/) will be those that can produce abundant, affordable and reliable power.\n\nAnd the consequences of allowing an electricity shortage to cut us off from that revolution would be catastrophic.\n\nAmerica has the resources to lead. It should stop regulating them out of existence.\n\n*Steve Forbes is chairman and CEO of Forbes Media.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/break-obamas-energy-shackles-and-free-americas-future", "canonical_source": "https://nypost.com/2026/07/10/opinion/break-obamas-energy-shackles-and-free-americas-future/", "published_at": "2026-07-10 10:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-10 10:09:49.407545+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Barack Obama", "Donald Trump", "Lee Zeldin", "Meta", "Oklo", "Microsoft", "Amazon", "Google"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/break-obamas-energy-shackles-and-free-americas-future", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/break-obamas-energy-shackles-and-free-americas-future.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/break-obamas-energy-shackles-and-free-americas-future.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/break-obamas-energy-shackles-and-free-americas-future.jsonld"}}