Rising Demand, Real Choices

The U.S. energy landscape has undergone a seismic shift in the last few years—faster than anticipated by many policymakers, regulators, and advocates. Electricity demand is rising at a pace not seen in decades; electricity bills are already spiking for many households and businesses; and the window for action to avoid the worst impacts of climate change is narrowing. At the same time, fossil fuel–related pollution is once again on the rise, in no small part due to the Trump administration’s energy policies.  

A major driver of this increased demand is the rapid proliferation of data centers, fueled by the explosive growth in AI and cloud computing. These facilities consume staggering amounts of electricity. The data centers expected to come online in the United States over just the next three years will require twice as much power than New York City and Chicago use combined—and they generally operate around the clock. Too often, that demand is powered by fossil fuels instead of clean energy, which threatens to lock in decades of additional carbon pollution while pushing electricity costs higher for everyday customers. 

Data center developers must provide new sources of clean, or carbon-free, energy to power their projects. This approach is often referred to as BeYONCE: Bring Your Own New Carbon-free Energy. At its core, BeYONCE is about ensuring that data center developers pay their fair share and pay the full cost of new sources of clean energy—and/or push the utilities that serve them to procure those carbon free resources—to meet their growing demand so that they are not increasing pollution and costs for others. It’s an important guardrail at a moment when decisions about how to meet new demand will have long-lasting consequences for consumers, communities, and the environment.  

Renewable energy, energy efficiency, storage, distributed energy resources, and expanded transmission remain NRDC’s preferred solutions. They are the most affordable, safest and fastest resources to deploy, and scaling them rapidly must remain the backbone of the transition to a clean energy economy. More than 90 percent of the new electricity generation built this year will be solar, wind, or batteries. Many data center developers are building or buying large-scale clean energy projects to power their data centers at a brisk pace, as well as investing in energy efficiency and grid solutions and making their electricity demand more flexible. But at the same time, the pace and scale of the electricity growth we are seeing today—particularly for large energy-intensive projects like data centers—means that in  certain circumstances, other carbon-free resources may also play a valuable role in meeting demand without increasing reliance on fossil fuels. 

The planned reopening of Iowa’s Duane Arnold nuclear plant provides a case study in real time. NextEra Energy is pursuing a restart of Iowa’s only nuclear plant, near Cedar Rapids, backed by a 25-year power purchase agreement with Google to help supply its growing AI and cloud data center operations.  

NRDC filed comments today at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) supporting an early step in the reactor’s restart: the transfer of the plant’s license to NextEra. NRDC’s comments note that NextEra meets the technical and financial qualification standards for the license transfer.  We also stated that our preliminary view is that the restart of the nuclear reactor could have decarbonization and grid benefits, while stressing that a rigorous NRC review on safety is essential.  

While Iowa is a national leader on wind energy (with wind providing around two-thirds of its electricity), it relies on fossil fuel generation for the remaining one-third. Alarmingly, due to load growth coupled with Trump’s policies, coal generation in the state increased by 32 percent between 2024 and 2025. Reopening Duane Arnold could help to mitigate further increases in coal power. Consumers will likely not foot the bill for the high costs of restarting and operating Duane Arnold because the Google power purchase agreement is being executed to cover those costs. 

At the same time, this license transfer is just one step in a much larger process. Our comments stress that the restart will require a separate, rigorous NRC review of safety and environmental impacts, including opportunities for public engagement. NRDC intends to participate in those proceedings and will closely scrutinize whether the plant can be restarted and operate safely and responsibly.  We will not take a final position on the restart until and unless this is demonstrated to our satisfaction at the close of the regulatory process.  

If we end up supporting the restart at the conclusion of the regulatory proceedings, it would mark the first instance of NRDC supporting the reopening of a nuclear plant.  

To be clear, NRDC’s long-held concerns regarding nuclear energy—including issues related to siting, cost, safety risks, waste management, water use, mining supply chain issues, and community impacts—remain unchanged and must be addressed. The Duane Arnold plant will have to prove it can operate safely and responsibly. Moreover, NRDC’s engagement in this process and potential future support for its restart should not be misconstrued as a broader statement about nuclear power or data center development. Instead, this is a fact specific application of the broader principle that data centers should be powered by privately funded, carbon-free power sources, with strong oversight and protections in place, without burdening consumers with additional costs. 

This is a challenging moment, and reasonable people can disagree on the best path forward—particularly in the face of a rapidly changing energy landscape and uncertain regulatory environment. NRDC is entering this process around the proposed restart of the Duane Arnold at an early stage, and we will determine our final position on that restart based on the facts and the record as they develop and the results of the regulatory process. What matters most is that decisions are guided by evidence, protect communities, and keep the United States on a credible path to a clean and affordable energy future that addresses the climate crisis.