I Built A Tiny City To Explain Data Centers

Our Take

Grant Rudow is asking the right question — are AI data centers actually driving up your power and water bills, or is something else going on underneath the headlines? That's a fair instinct, and we're glad more creators are pulling on this thread instead of just repeating whatever talking point is trending. The buildout is real, the load growth is real, and the fights over who pays for new transmission lines and substations are happening in utility commission hearings most people never watch.

But "it's complicated" can't be where the story ends. Somewhere in every one of these deals is a specific utility, a specific rate case, a specific tax abatement, and a specific set of officials who signed off on it — and those details are exactly what get lost when the conversation stays at 30,000 feet. The real accountability work is figuring out which state PUC approved cost-shifting onto residential ratepayers, which county gave a hyperscaler a decades-long tax break while the fire department's budget stayed flat, and which aquifer is being drawn down for cooling water with barely a public notice.

That's the ground-level work we do every day. Check our facility map to see what's being built near you, and if you want to push back on a deal in your own backyard, our take-action page has a place to start.