“Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle have announced AI capital spending plans totaling $650 billion this year, up 70% from 2025 and up 650% from 2020. This single-year spending total is larger than the individual Gross Domestic Product of 168 nations.”

“Economy-transforming artificial intelligence faces a rising battle between the Trump administration and progressive environmental groups, a major issue for the mid-term elections.”

Artificial intelligence is impacting the economy on a scale that may surpass changes from the internet revolution. Science, technology, energy, transportation, health care, industry, and business are being transformed at an accelerating pace. President Trump has emerged as an AI champion, but opposition is rising from progressive and environmental groups.

The term “artificial intelligence” was coined by John McCarthy at Dartmouth College in 1955. But it took 67 years until the introduction of ChatGPT in November of 2022 for AI systems to master the complexities of human language.…

This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. Droz is also the author of the popular Substack Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues.

Greed Energy Economics:
*** Blue States, High Rates
Electricity Rate Increases

Unreliables: Energy Health and Ecosystem Consequences:
Minnesota green energy program fined for killing bald eagle: ‘National treasure’
Conservation Group Sues, Claims Feds Hiding Wyoming Wind Turbine Eagle Deaths

Unreliables (General):
*** Transition & Redundancy
*** Report: The Intrinsic Danger of Siting Utility Scale Lithium Based Energy Storage Systems In Densely Populated Areas
Charging ahead: $500M Dunkirk battery storage project seeks tax assistance
Letter to DOE Sec Wright re the Senate considering Carbon Taxes (!)…

A nuclear energy resurgence is underway, driven by the artificial intelligence revolution and the Trump administration. Nuclear plants that were shut down are being restarted. Dozens of small reactors are being deployed. But nuclear power still faces major cost, startup time, and regulatory obstacles.

The first commercial nuclear plant started operation at Calder Hall in England in 1956. By 1970, reactors were in construction around the world. Many predicted that atomic energy would generate most of the world’s power by 2000. In 1973, President Richard Nixon stated, “It is estimated that nuclear power will provide more than one-quarter of the country’s electrical production by 1985, and over half by the year 2000.”

However, operational problems and environmental opposition would sway public opinion against atomic energy. Reactor failures at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979, in Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986, and at Fukushima, Japan in 2011 raised safety concerns.…

This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. Droz is also the author of the popular Substack Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues.

Greed Energy Economics:
*** The Ongoing Fiction of Cheap Wind and Solar

Unreliables (General):
*** Electricity generated from wind and solar cannot replace fossil fuels!
*** How to Fix Renewable Energy’s Hidden Infrastructure Problem
CFACT delivers important renewable energy message to ALEC attendees
BP Abandoning Renewables

Wind Energy — Offshore:
New York halts offshore wind power line approvals, citing Trump opposition

Wind Energy — Other:
*** FWS is violating its own eagle-kill regulations
*** The Ugly Truth About Wind: Environmental Disaster Masquerading as Clean Energy

Solar Energy:
SUNBLOCK: The Global Fight To Save Farmland From Big Solar (short video)

Nuclear Energy:
*** Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are a game-changer for the world
*** How to unleash Small Modular Reactors (Alex Epstein)
Asia’s Pivot Toward Nuclear Energy
The Future of Nuclear in Texas
Startup begins work on US fusion power plant.…