{"id":4191,"date":"2026-07-15T06:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T06:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=4191"},"modified":"2026-07-15T06:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T06:36:10","slug":"sanders-aoc-try-to-kill-clean-energys-biggest-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=4191","title":{"rendered":"Sanders, AOC try to kill clean energy\u2019s biggest victory"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OPINION:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In May, for the first time in American history, solar generated more electricity than coal.<\/p>\n

Read more Biden and the radical left allowed thousands of terrorists into the U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

This should be a dream come true for architects of the Green New Deal, Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat.<\/p>\n

Instead, they are trying to kill the very artificial intelligence boom that has driven much of that growth with a bill effectively outlawing data center construction.<\/p>\n

This exposes an uncomfortable truth: The modern environmental movement wants clean energy only if it gives them power to reshape the economy. When private companies deploy clean energy, Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez want to destroy it.<\/p>\n

That is the only explanation for their hostility to one of the biggest environmental success stories in recent memory.<\/p>\n

In May, solar supplied a record 12.8% of U.S. electricity, up from 5.4% five years ago. Meanwhile, coal fell from 20% to 12.2%.<\/p>\n

Some of the biggest shifts happened most recently. In the first quarter of 2026, solar and battery storage accounted for 91% of all new energy generation capacity.<\/p>\n

This surge is directly attributable to AI hyperscalers. In 2025, Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft together accounted for nearly half of all global corporate clean energy purchase agreements.<\/p>\n

It is all a matter of math. Building a data center takes 12 to 24 months. Getting a traditional grid connection can take three times longer.<\/p>\n

Solar and battery storage can be deployed fast and at scale, and can be co-located with the data centers themselves. That is why Google is powering its Texas data centers with 875 megawatts of American-made solar, and Microsoft and Meta are making unprecedented investments in renewables.<\/p>\n

It is not to win green brownie points, but rather because the economics make sense.<\/p>\n

This is how markets work: When the incentives align, private industry moves faster and further than any government program.<\/p>\n

That is exactly what makes Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez so angry. To them, private industry is evil, and only the government can \u201csave the planet.\u201d They are furious because they have been proved wrong on both points.<\/p>\n

Read more Absurd plastic grocery bag ban hurting businesses<\/a><\/p>\n

Nothing shows this more than the Inflation Reduction Act. Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez championed it as the most important climate legislation ever passed. It directed nearly $370 billion in taxpayer money toward green energy. Yet the most dramatic acceleration in solar deployment came not from the legislation, but from the AI boom that followed it.<\/p>\n

Still, the Inflation Reduction Act worked exactly as intended, as long as you remember that government subsidies are designed to enrich friends, not improve industry. Of the $27 billion in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund created by the legislation, $20 billion was awarded to eight nonprofits with Democratic ties, some of which failed basic compliance.<\/p>\n

Power Forward Communities \u2014 a coalition led by Rewiring America, which boasts the well-connected former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams as senior counsel \u2014 received $2 billion just six months after its establishment.\u00a0The $27 billion in government-directed climate spending bought a slush fund for Democratic apparatchiks.<\/p>\n

This makes the success of AI hyperscalers even more infuriating to the left. It is not just that tech companies are deploying clean energy more effectively than the government; it is that they are doing it outside of the control of elected Democrats and their political cronies.<\/p>\n

It is also happening in free, red states where leaders prioritize construction, investment and economic growth. Texas has become the nation\u2019s clean-energy powerhouse.<\/p>\n

States governed by the environmental left, meanwhile, have spent years layering on permitting delays, regulatory hurdles and litigation that make it difficult to build a highway overpass, much less the solar farms, manufacturing facilities and data centers powering the AI boom.<\/p>\n

All this makes environmentalists unable to stomach contemporary environmental successes. I would be surprised if Gaia worshippers read the Bible often, but they seem to accept one verse: \u201cThe wages of sin is death.\u201d For the sin of independence from politicians and environmental activists, Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez are trying to send AI to an early grave through their Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act.<\/p>\n

The bill would immediately halt construction of every new data center in America until Congress passes sweeping AI regulations \u2014 a process that, by any honest assessment, will never happen. Mr. Sanders framed the legislation as an attack on \u201ca handful of billionaire Big Tech oligarchs.\u201d<\/p>\n

His tired tirade masks the truth: A ban on AI data centers is really a ban on clean energy investments, results be damned.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez will not stop AI or the environmental victories of private industry, but they have shown their cards. What matters to them and other left-wing environmentalists is not clean energy or the climate. It is control.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Chris Johnson is the founder and president of the American Energy Leadership Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more What would Biden do with Russia and Iran?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In May, for the first time in American history, solar generated more electricity than coal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,30],"tags":[20,1718,732,137,1717],"class_list":["post-4191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-opinion","tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","tag-amazon","tag-google","tag-meta","tag-microsoft"],"yoast_head":"\nSanders, AOC try to kill clean energy\u2019s biggest victory - Home Buyer Relocation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=4191\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sanders, AOC try to kill clean energy\u2019s biggest victory - 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