'This isn't right': impact of AI data centers on residents and their utility bills

Our Take

Credit to ABC News and reporter Elizabeth Schulze for putting a camera in front of the people who are actually living next to this boom instead of just quoting industry press releases. "This isn't right" is the kind of quote that sums up what we hear from residents in buildout zones across the country: the jobs pitch sounds great in a press conference, but the bill that shows up in the mailbox tells a different story.

Here's the part that doesn't get said enough: residential ratepayers are being asked to help underwrite grid upgrades built to serve massive, power-hungry server farms, often without a public vote on whether that trade is worth it. Utility commissions approve new transmission and generation costs, those costs get spread across the rate base, and the hyperscalers who benefit most rarely see their names on the line item. Meanwhile the same communities are also fielding questions about water use and land use that this segment doesn't even get into.

If you want to know whether one of these projects is sited near you, or whose signature is on the tax break and interconnection agreement, check our facility map and see what you can do about it at take action.