Environment & Energy

Eugene

(66,586 posts) Sat Nov 8, 2025, 12:15 AM Saturday

Voters' anger over high electricity bills and data centers loom over 2026 midterms

Source: Associated Press

Voters’ anger over high electricity bills and data centers loom over 2026 midterms

By MARC LEVY and JESSE BEDAYN
Updated 12:05 AM EST, November 8, 2025

Voter anger over the cost of living is hurtling forward into next year’s midterm elections, when pivotal contests will be decided by communities that are home to fast-rising electric bills or fights over who’s footing the bill to power Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers.

Electricity costs were a key issue in this week’s elections for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, a data center hotspot, and in Georgia, where Democrats ousted two Republican incumbents for seats on the state’s utility regulatory commission.

Voters in New Jersey, Virginia, California and New York City all cited economic concerns as the top issue, as Democrats and Republicans gird for a debate over affordability in the intensifying midterm battle to control Congress.

Already, President Donald Trump is signaling that he’ll focus on affordability next year as he and Republicans try to maintain their slim congressional majorities, while Democrats are blaming Trump for rising household costs.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/2026-election-utility-bills-ai-data-centers-13703f61d1397612fd067e69b9093116

1 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Voters' anger over high electricity bills and data centers loom over 2026 midterms (Original Post) Eugene Saturday OP

AI is new, Greed is not GreatGazoo Saturday #1

GreatGazoo

(4,293 posts)

1. AI is new, Greed is not

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Sat Nov 8, 2025, 06:13 AM

Saturday

Data Centers are going to areas where rates are the lowest and where they can build out "behind the meter" power generation; IOW build their own generators. For example, TerraWulf, near Rochester NY pays just $0.04 per KwH.

Demonizing data centers has played well this year because nobody wants to live near one but rates are rising in areas that have no data centers and never will because rates are too high already.

The emerging problem with the "blame big tech for rising rates" strategy is that the most tech friendly states -- California, NY, Illinois and Colorado -- are solidly Blue. The implication that we should welcome and suck up rate increases because they will turn purple into blue is flawed and it embraces rather than seeks to limit the financial hardship of high rates.

I have been worried about looming rate increases for two years. Basically since 2023 when I saw private investment flowing into utilities which until then had been a boring, heavily regulated, low margin business. It seemed like they knew something that I did not know yet. Investment gurus said the plan of the hedgies was to bottleneck and monopolize delivery and that electricity was suddenly "sexy" because regulations guaranteed the owners of utility companies a profit on everything. As they stand regulations allow:

utility monopolies to pass off the costs of mismanagement, speculative projects, and underutilized infrastructure onto everyday families and small businesses. These companies control the transmission and distribution of electricity from power plants into homes and businesses. While they cite the need for “modernization,” much of this cost surge has less to do with progress than with guaranteed profits. Public officials allow utilities to earn a fixed return on the money they spend to maintain the grid. That creates a perverse incentive: the more they spend—needed or not—the more they earn. And thanks to their monopoly status, ratepayers have no choice but to foot the bill.

emphasis added. https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/08/27/utility_monopolies_are_driving_up_your_electric_bill_1131362.html

This mirrors a similar dynamic in health insurance regulation -- Insurers's profits are capped at 17% of revenue so they are incentivized to raise the cost of healthcare as much as possible every year.

Reply to this discussion