President Donald Trump has declared an energy emergency, stating that the domestic energy supply is “precariously inadequate” and poses a threat to national security. Additionally, he announced a $500 billion private sector investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure across the United States. At the intersection of these two lies a transformational opportunity for an unsuspecting sector: America’s forests. …South Carolina’s bountiful supply of trees faces a declining market… Between January 2023 and March 2024, nearly 50 forest product mills reported they would be closing or curtailing production… leaving private landowners with few incentives to maintain their forests.
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities focuses on finding innovative solutions to sustain forest-dependent communities here in South Carolina and across the country. One such innovation lies in the growing market for biomass energy … a renewable energy solution for our growing demands for power. A simple query to ChatGPT uses roughly the same amount of energy it takes to brew three cups of coffee. Multiplied by the hundreds of millions of queries processed by AI models every day — with a million queries draining the amount of power needed to power 30 homes for an entire month — there is a huge environmental and energy drain. By integrating biomass in a diversified energy portfolio, we can build a resilient grid that can power developing industries while ensuring economic and environmental sustainability for decades to come.