Trump pushes fossil fuels, tells Big Tech to provide own power for AI

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump championed a "drill, baby, drill" energy policy during a 108-minute State of the Union address, asserting that U.S. oil and gas production reached record levels under his leadership while blasting green energy initiatives.

Official data, however, presents a different reality for energy employment. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mining, oil, and gas sectors have lost 15,000 jobs since Trump took office.

Additionally, an analysis by the organization Climate Power indicates that administration policies targeting renewable energy have resulted in the loss or delay of nearly 173,000 clean energy jobs.

Addressing the massive surge in electricity demand driven by the boom in AI data centers, Trump announced a new strategy requiring tech giants to provide their own power for new facilities. Trump said he has negotiated with major technology companies to ensure they self-supply the energy needs of these sites.

The plan, dubbed the "ratepayer protection pledge," aims to prevent rising electricity prices for residential households.

Environmental groups and critics expressed skepticism regarding the proposal. They argued the plan fails to address the root causes of energy instability and continues to prioritize fossil fuels over sustainable solutions.

Donald Trump’s current strategy on energy and technology represents a sophisticated political pivot. Moving beyond a simple rejection of climate science, the former president is reframing the environmental debate as a localized economic crisis centered on the cost of living and corporate accountability. By targeting surging electricity prices and attributing the strain on the grid to the massive power demands of AI data centers, he has identified a high-profile antagonist for public frustration: the Silicon Valley tech giants.

The proposal to mandate that Big Tech companies finance their own energy infrastructure is a calculated populist maneuver. This policy shift appeals to voters struggling with rising utility bills while providing a platform to expand fossil fuel production without litigating the merits of climate change. Essentially, the narrative positions Trump as a defender of the middle class, shielding consumers from the perceived excesses of both "green scams" and the "tech elite."

However, this policy framework contains significant structural contradictions. Labor data indicates that the previous "energy dominance" agenda did not deliver the projected windfall for oil and gas workers. Furthermore, by marginalizing wind and solar—currently the market’s lowest-cost energy sources—the plan risks exacerbating long-term supply shortages. Shifting the fiscal burden to technology firms may offer a short-term political victory, but it fails to address the fundamental challenge of powering an increasingly digitized economy in a sustainable and cost-effective manner.

For Vietnamese-American entrepreneurs—especially those operating energy-dependent businesses like nail salons, phở restaurants, and laundromats—the most direct impact lies in the volatility of utility rates. The 6.7% spike in electricity costs over the past year has placed a tangible financial burden on small business owners across communities like Little Saigon. While President Trump’s plan to cap energy prices could provide much-needed short-term stability for overhead costs, the long-term outlook remains uncertain. If the plan fails to gain traction or if the tech sector offsets its own rising costs through secondary service fees, these local mainstays may still find themselves vulnerable to indirect economic pressure.