During a recent interview with CNBC, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick addressed the environmental impact of data centers, specifically asserting that these facilities “don’t use water.” This claim stands in direct opposition to widely documented reports from environmental agencies and industry analysts, which highlight that data centers require significant amounts of water for cooling systems to prevent servers from overheating.

Data centers are increasingly scrutinized as their energy and water footprints expand alongside the growth of artificial intelligence and cloud computing. While Lutnick’s comments suggest a dismissal of these concerns, local governments and environmental groups have frequently cited the high water consumption of these facilities as a primary point of tension in land-use debates. The discrepancy between the Secretary's public statement and the technical reality of data center operations has prompted questions regarding the administration's understanding of infrastructure resource demands. As of now, the Commerce Department has not provided further clarification on whether Lutnick was referring to a specific type of closed-loop cooling technology or if the statement was intended to be taken as a general rule for the industry.