The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal says the AI boom is forcing Google, Microsoft and Amazon to embrace nuclear power and natural gas, and that will be good for everyone
SCHAUMBURG, IL (September 25, 2026) — The Heartland Institute’s Emerging Issues Center Director Donald Kendal is available for interviews about his new commentary in The Washington Times, arguing that the AI boom has forced Big Tech’s biggest climate pledgers to rediscover a truth energy realists have understood for decades: Modern civilization runs on abundant, affordable, reliable power.
Kendal points out that Google, Microsoft and Amazon each made sweeping public climate commitments. Google pledged to run entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030, Microsoft to be carbon negative by 2030, and Amazon to reach net-zero emissions by 2040. Those lofty, virtue-signaling commitments are now colliding with AI’s soaring electricity demand. Kendal calls the resulting corporate pivot toward nuclear power and natural gas one of the more remarkable and speedy corporate reversals of modern industry.
Kendal also argues the shift could benefit far more than Big Tech’s bottom line. He makes the case for building new nuclear reactors, expanding natural gas generation, and strengthening the electric grid for everyone. If the AI boom leaves America with more generating capacity than it had before, the payoff could extend to lower costs for families and businesses, stronger manufacturing, and new industries.
Kendal wrote:
“America should build nuclear reactors, expand natural gas generation, strengthen the grid and encourage investment in whatever technologies produce abundant, reliable, affordable power.”
On your program, Kendal can discuss:
• Why Google, Microsoft and Amazon are quietly rediscovering nuclear power and natural gas after years of promoting an all-renewables future
• How AI’s soaring electricity demand is colliding with Big Tech’s own 2030 and 2040 climate pledges
• Why this shift could benefit ordinary Americans, not just tech companies, through added generating capacity and lower energy costs
• What policymakers and utilities should do now to meet the coming surge in electricity demand
• Why this reversal amounts to the market itself validating the energy-realist argument Heartland has made for years
Why Book Donald Kendal?
Donald Kendal is director of the Glenn C. Haskins Emerging Issues Center at The Heartland Institute, where he writes on the energy, technology and policy trends being driven by the AI boom. He can speak to any audience about the real-world consequences of Big Tech’s energy decisions.
To book Kendal on your program, reply to this email or contact VP & Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] or call/text 312-731-9364.
The Heartland Institute is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1984 and headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our website or call 312/377-4000.
Donald Kendal is Director of The Heartland Institute’s Socialism Research Center. Kendal is also the host of Heartland’s In the Tank Podcast.
