New Actions Tied to AI, Data Centers Unveiled at Recent White House Meeting

The White House on Sept. 12 convened leaders from hyperscalers, artificial intelligence companies, datacenter operators, and utility companies “to discuss steps to ensure the United States continues to lead the world in AI.”

Participants considered strategies to meet clean energy, permitting, and workforce requirements for developing large-scale AI datacenters and power infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations in the United States, a White House readout on the meeting noted.

To accelerate public-private collaboration in advancing U.S. leadership in AI, the White House announced several new actions following the meeting.

Specifically, the White House is launching a new Task Force on AI Datacenter Infrastructure to coordinate policy across government.

Led by the National Economic Council, National Security Council, and the White House Deputy Chief of Staff’s office, the interagency Task Force will provide streamlined coordination on policies to advance data center development operations in line with economic, national security, and environmental goals.

The Task Force will work with AI infrastructure leaders to identify opportunities and work with agencies to ensure adequate resourcing, designate agency single points of contact, and properly prioritize AI data center development “to reflect the importance of these projects to American national security and economic interests,” the readout said.

The Task Force will also build on recent work to identify existing authorities and areas where legislative action is needed to modify or strengthen federal authorities to support AI data center development.

The Administration will also scale up technical assistance to federal, state, and local authorities handling data center permitting.

The Permitting Council will work with AI data center developers to set comprehensive timelines for federal agency action and will allocate funds to agencies that accelerate evaluations for FAST-41 covered clean energy projects that support datacenters.

Department of Energy

In addition, the Department of Energy is creating an AI data center engagement team to leverage programs to support AI data center development.

DOE has curated a suite of resources – including loans, grants, tax credits, and technical assistance – that can help data center owners and operators secure clean, reliable energy solutions.

DOE is also planning a series of convenings with data center developers, clean energy solutions providers, grid operators, and other stakeholders to drive development of innovative solutions.

DOE will continue to share resources on repurposing closed coal sites with data center developers.

Retired and retiring coal sites provide a unique opportunity for redevelopment of energy infrastructure that can power new data centers, the White House noted. Existing land and facilities at the power plant site can be repurposed, such as electricity infrastructure for connections to the grid, it said. Combining site features with financial incentives available from federal or state and local authorities can make attractive opportunities for project developers.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will identify nationwide permits that can help expedite the construction of eligible AI data centers and share that information with AI data center developers to expedite critical projects.

Industry participants at the meeting were: