AP NewsWatch

0:00I'm Ben Thomas with an AP News Minute. Big techs push for mega data centers is pushing demand for clean energy. Rich Powell with Clean Energy Buyers Association says more companies account for 75% of the corporate contracts. They play a very, very important role today in deploying carbon emissions for electricity, not just on the grids here in the United States, but also increasingly around the world. Data centers which gobble up energy can consume more power than entire cities. Julie McNamara with the Union of Concerned Scientists. So we're seeing tech companies turning to fossil fuels and moving forward with that as a way to push that data center development in spite of their climate commitments. McNamara says even though it was a near-record year and solar development last year, there is an enormous amount of gas-fired power plants being proposed. That has enormous emissions implications both for climate as well as for public health. I'm Lisa Dwyer. And I'm Ben Thomas.