Mint ·
How a trade deal With Japan could change the face of US energy
Japan is set to fund the three gargantuan natural-gas plans in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Sizing up the opportunities and the obstacles.
President Donald Trump never got Mexico to pay for his border wall, but he’s having a surprising amount of success getting Japan to pay for America’s artificial-intelligence data center buildout.
Japan has already approved government loans for three gargantuan natural-gas plants in Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania. If they opened today, they’d be the three largest gas plants in American history, powerful enough to provide all the electricity needed by both New York City and Los Angeles on an average day. All three are expected to power AI data center complexes.
The projects and the financing schemes behind them are unlike anything seen before in the U.S. Japan has agreed to commit as much as $550 billion on American infrastructure by the end of Trump’s term in return for a relatively low base tariff rate of 15%, down from its pre-deal rate of 25%. The outlines of the deal were struck a year ago, but it has largely faded from public view since.
