Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has a message for anyone worried about the water AI data centers are guzzling: it's all in your head. Or, more precisely, it's "propaganda by our adversaries."
"One of my favorite things is when people talk about data centers using water. The No. 1 product in America that uses water is cattle," Lutnick told CNBC on Wednesday. "I mean, data centers don't use water. This is propaganda by our adversaries to try to slow us down."
It's a bold claim. But federal research tells a different story.
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates U.S. data centers directly consumed about 66 billion liters of water in 2023, up from 21.2 billion liters in 2014. And that number could balloon: hyperscale facilities alone might use anywhere from 60 billion to 124 billion liters annually by 2028.
To be fair, water use isn't uniform across the industry. The Data Center Coalition, a membership group for the sector, notes that some facilities rely entirely on air cooling, while others use water or hybrid systems. It points to a Virginia study showing 83% of data centers there consume as much water as, or less than, a large office building. Operators are also increasingly adopting closed-loop and waterless cooling technologies.
But the sweeping dismissal from Lutnick comes at a politically delicate moment. President Donald Trump is doubling down on his support for data centers, recently urging communities to "let Data Reign" and warning that opponents could become "backwards and poor." That rhetoric drew sharp rebukes from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and even some Republicans, including Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The administration has also shown it's aware of infrastructure costs. Its expanded Ratepayer Protection Pledge requires participating companies to fund new power generation and grid upgrades rather than passing costs to households. The pledge now covers about 80% of U.S. electricity deliveries.
Congress is getting in on the act too. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding a hearing Thursday on draft legislation that would make data center developers, not local families, foot the bill for water infrastructure.
Even industry backers see the political risk. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has said developers "dug their own grave" by not engaging with communities. Investor Kevin O'Leary has urged operators to "be clear about water usage and emissions."
So while Lutnick may see water concerns as foreign interference, the folks living next to these massive facilities, and the lawmakers representing them, are increasingly treating it as a very real, very local problem.
