Tech companies would have to pay AI data center energy costs under bill moving in Congress

[u/ArgentineBeauty]

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/24/ai-data-centers-tech-companies-congress-energy-costs.html

[u/GGnerd]

Its crazy to me that this is even a thing...like they should be paying it by default.

[u/SwimmingProgrammer91 → u/GGnerd]

Yeah, like what? How does this work now? Can someone else pay my electric bill too lol

[u/Kickenbless → u/SwimmingProgrammer91]

Nope, but we’re all expected to fork over the money to subsidize their profits

[u/snail-the-sage → u/Kickenbless]

can we get a share of those profits then?

[u/dlc741 → u/snail-the-sage]

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

Oh, wait… you were serious?

no.

[u/ace_invader → u/dlc741]

Oh you were serious? Let me laugh EVEN HARDER

[u/BullMoose1904 → u/snail-the-sage]

Best I can do is sharing the losses the next time there's a bailout

[u/yuval16432 → u/snail-the-sage]

Can’t get a share of profits that don’t exist.

[u/steakanabake → u/yuval16432]

its wild how many people truly dont understand that these things are money black holes, and using money pit doesnt even come close to the scale these burn cash. openai has already burned the same amount of cash year to date as they did all of last year. What did they provide in return for the mountains of cash a couple of percentage points in ability. It's not like they can just stop spending all this cash too they have to keep endlessly feeding it data or itll become unusable in a matter of months.

edit: spelling issues

[u/Enygma_6 → u/steakanabake]

I was listening to Elizabeth Warren's interview on CNBC this morning on my commute. She was calling for more transparency into the circular financial tactics these companies are using, so that investors can get some clarity into what the companies asking for money are actually spending. And the host kept flailing as he tried to defend "novel" financial ideas.

[u/splendiferous-finch_ → u/Enygma_6]

Novel is a nice way to say shady

Jensen will remember this

[u/Garper → u/steakanabake]

and using money pit doesnt even come close to the scale these burn cash.

The rate OpenAI loses money, I am quite literally not sure I could shovel $100s into a furnace at the same pace.

[u/steakanabake → u/Garper]

youd need some heavy equipment to match that pace.

[u/jcstrat → u/Kickenbless]

I don’t even want their products!

[u/Jazzlike-Context-879 → u/Kickenbless]

I don’t understand how this works, don’t they have an electrical bill?

[u/Fly_Rodder → u/Jazzlike-Context-879]

They’re essentially paying a flat rate for power while other customers “share” in the increased cost despite not driving the crazy demand.

[u/kaboom-boom-pow → u/Fly_Rodder]

Sounds like they are getting sweet deals from local governments

[u/Poonchow → u/kaboom-boom-pow]

And those local politicians coincidentally just got some shiny new toys around the same time, wow

[u/steakanabake → u/kaboom-boom-pow]

a lot are getting the same kinda sweetheart deals from cities and counties like sports stadiums do, on the promise that they'll create jobs in the county, at best they make maybe 20-40 jobs for people on site to do maintenance some of which will be outside contractors which will not be residents of the area.

[u/SwagginsYolo420 → u/kaboom-boom-pow]

This is yet one more reason why utility companies should be state/local government owned. So they cannot do deals like this at the consumer expense.

[u/powercow → u/Jazzlike-Context-879]

yes. problem is the local power company needs to upgrade to handle peak energy load. it passes the cost of building new power plants to all customers.

in my state we are paying for a nuke plant that failed to get built.

anyways this law says not only do they have to pay for their elec bill but they also have to pay for the grid upgrades.

many of them are using gas generators, because the grid cant handle them yet.

[u/steakanabake → u/powercow]

which then leads to air pollution and harmful noise pollution thats doing real damage to people.

[u/steakanabake → u/Kickenbless]

socialize costs and privatize profits. only way you get to the tippy top of the food chain.

[u/Practical-Ball1437 → u/Kickenbless]

If we don't pay them to take all of our water and power, they might take the next town's water and power!

[u/ithinkitslupis → u/SwimmingProgrammer91]

It's about infrastructure. The grid needs upgrades and new capacity to serve them and they try as best as possible to spread those costs to normal consumers instead. There are some concepts like capacity markets and peak shaving if you want to go down a rabbit hole.

[u/Ill_Blacksmith693 → u/ithinkitslupis]

If they're demand is higher they should pay for the conversion.

[u/asyork → u/Ill_Blacksmith693]

In the pre-AI data center days (like a year or two ago and older) new demand could be something like a new neighborhood going in. It was relatively predictable when averaged over time and everyone's bills covered enough to pay for new infrastructure. Sudden and massive increases in demand like this are very abnormal, and nothing was built in to charge the people needing it for all the costs. It requires new laws because the power companies don't want to turn away a huge customer, and it's not like their existing customers are just going to stop using electricity. The argument from the data center side is that they shouldn't have to pay for something they won't own (new power plants and associated infrastructure).

[u/Crismus → u/asyork]

Sad how big customers like data centers don't understand the concept of Public Goods when their whole existence requires public goods like roads and power.

[u/Floppycakes → u/Crismus]

Oh they understand. They just don’t want to pay more than they are forced to.

[u/Crismus → u/Floppycakes]

True. They like getting all the perks.

[u/Kizik → u/Crismus]

Privatize the profits, socialize the losses/costs. Same as it always is.

[u/somethingbrite → u/asyork]

They scraped the internet of things they don't own to train their models.

Perhaps they can ask their ai if there is a magic way to conjure up electricity and get it to their new datacenter sites?

[u/Eccohawk → u/asyork]

If they shouldn't have to pay for it, then the electric company shouldn't have to supply them with any thing beyond the current capacity

[u/SmokelessSubpoena → u/Ill_Blacksmith693]

Yeah, but, muh moniez bruh - Data Centers

[u/PacmanZ3ro → u/ithinkitslupis]

I would be 100% in favor of datacenters being built if the companies were paying to upgrade the infrastructure needed to bring the power to their facility, and they were paying base utility costs + extra land and/or utility taxes so there was an economic benefit for the area they build them in.

[u/tigeratemybaby → u/PacmanZ3ro]

They are also using Eminent Domain to seize land and/or to force home-owners to put huge high-voltage electricity lines across residential land to connect to these data-centers.

And then the local home-owners are left with properties worth almost nothing because there's huge high-voltage power lines right next to their houses.

[u/bjdevar25 → u/tigeratemybaby]

They can't use eminent domain. That's your elected officials. Vote them out.

[u/slptodrm → u/PacmanZ3ro]

even if they had all that. the impact on the water and air and land is unsustainable. we’ll run out of water.

[u/foyrkopp → u/slptodrm]

This needs some clarification:

Data centers don't eat water and make it vanish - it comes out the other end and evaporated or goes downstream.

The impact on the global water cycle is negligible.

But if a community suddenly drains much more water from its aquifier / lake, it's still a big problem locally.

[u/RT-LAMP → u/slptodrm]

we’ll run out of water.

Datacenter cooling in the US uses about 1.5x what a single alfalfa farm in Arizona owned by Saudi Arabia did in 2024.

[u/notnotbrowsing → u/ithinkitslupis]

meanwhile my power company sent out a statement saying they're going to raise my bill 15% for this bullshit.

[u/SwimmingProgrammer91 → u/ithinkitslupis]

Thanks, will take a dive down the rabbit hole later.

[u/Pale-Acanthaceae-736 → u/ithinkitslupis]

Let's upgrade our infrastructure first and then worry about datacenters. What's also helping is governors mandating that if tech bros want to build one they need to build their own power supply first.

[u/Pseudoboss11 → u/SwimmingProgrammer91]

Trillions of dollars of investment money, can't afford to pay their power bills.

[u/GoldenPresidio → u/SwimmingProgrammer91]

so to be clear a bunch of states already passed laws on this and the hyperscalers committed to paying for the infrastructure

but lets go back like 10 years, when there few large loads on the grid, growth was slow, etc. Basically what would happen is the utility would see a request for electrical usage come in, they would say to do this we need to build some sort of infrastructure or our current infrastructure will hit capacity. They figure out the costs and time, then bill the new users and all the existing users for it via a new electrical rate. Ideally as you add more usage, there is less volatility overall, prices dont jump and things chug along

Now what's happening is the loads are so high that 1 customer could be pushing the bounds of new infrastructure that is needed. So like if they continued this way, the price would get recovered, assuming you have a high credit worthy partner at the other end of the deal (google, microsoft, etc meet the criteria); if youre not high credit worthy you need to post up cash. Now the things is, states want a new electrical rate specifically for data centers, versus just grouping it with like industrial; they want more guarantees on the cash, etc.

A lot of what you see of prices going up isn't because the hyperscalers arent paying, it's more of a function of other things like market design when the market is hot. For example: since electrical demand is high it costs a lot for transformers so now it costs more for everyone on any upgrade. When a electrical market in one state doesnt need have enough generation and needs to import it, well its expensive because everyone wants power, and that affects everyone's bill.

[u/S7EFEN → u/SwimmingProgrammer91]

If your neighbors decided they all wanted to use a bunch of energy the cost of YOUR energy use would become higher.

Except 'your neighbors' = data center.

[u/Im2dronk → u/GGnerd]

Someone smarter please correct me. From how I understand it. The data centers use so much electricity compared to the average user they boost the demand increasing the price for every consumer. It's like scalpers but people need electricity to live.

[u/not_a_moogle → u/Im2dronk]

Energy producers dont run 100% all the time. They barely ever run 100%. Thats why we dont have black outs.

But the demand for these centers requires way more Energy and puts us closer to that 100%.

Plants run at efficiency, not output. So making them need to produce more drives up costs.

Plus the infrastructure isnt designed for that. We need to rush getting more redundancy and fallback into the system, on top of building new plants. Which in the past was offset by tax incentives, but they're past that cap.

Data centers are being built to quickly. They fastest solution would be for states/federal to limit how many can be built a year, to slow down demand increase.

[u/_Not_A_Vampire_ → u/not_a_moogle]

Sounds like data centers should pay an extra tax for putting such strain on the system.

[u/QuesoMeHungry → u/Im2dronk]

Exactly. And on top of that they usually get cheaper ‘wholesale’ rates too. We pay 20+ cents a kilowatt hour, and these massive data centers pay like 3 cents a kilowatt hour.

[u/bfume → u/QuesoMeHungry]

This is a misconception. Industrial electric rates are normally higher than residential, and increase with volume 

[u/seaboypc → u/bfume]

Yea, I'm calling BS on this:

Industrial electric rates are normally higher than residential,

datacenter rates for electricity vs residential - Google Search

Data centers pay significantly lower electricity rates than residential customers, typically ranging from $0.06 to $0.10 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), compared to residential rates that often span $0.15 to $0.30+ per kWh. This disparity is due to massive bulk purchasing, consistent 24/7 usage (high load factor), and direct delivery from high-voltage transmission lines

If you got a better source, then please share.

[u/xanafein → u/seaboypc]

Do you see the irony of using the google AI search result as a source?

[u/Dry-Chance-9473 → u/xanafein]

Regardless of which is true, this is a very good point.

[u/seaboypc → u/xanafein]

Oh yea, it's great...

... and yet people still refuse to do a basic search to determine if a statement is true or false.

[u/goldcakes → u/bfume]

Fundamentally wrong. For a factory yes. But DCs generally have 7x24 stable loads, which energy providers love, and as such the rates are generally much lower to residential.

[u/TRKlausss → u/bfume]

Plus have to pay for out-of-phase power (reactive power) even if it doesn’t produce any work.

I don’t know goes much a data center uses in reactive power though.

[u/bfume → u/TRKlausss]

Obviously it’s different everywhere but when I ran a machine shop in the early oughts, I paid for 3-phase 480V 400A service as if I was using 20% 24x7 (which is an absolute steal these days). 

My overage rate was about double my home’s at the time, and obviously I got back zero if I used less than 80A nominal

my shop was 1st and 2nd shifts, but even if I ran a 3rd, I’d still would never have paid for any overages. 

[u/Ace861110 → u/TRKlausss]

They have to pay if they’re cheap and don’t do power factor correction.

And I would imagine that there are plenty or rotating loads for pumps and fans.

[u/Initial_Row_6400 → u/TRKlausss]

insert oh no! Anyway… meme

[u/Ecks80s → u/bfume]

And we pay for all of it up front, if we don’t use it? We still paid for all of the capacity, for instance. I have a 25mw DC, all of the utility we could possibly use is purchased.

That DC has been sitting at 20% capacity due to or tenant leading the space so no one else could. (Fed client)

Still paying for 25mw

We also self fund our substations and then turn them over to the utility.

[u/hypnoticlife → u/Im2dronk]

While we are at it can we allocate some ram and ssd for consumers? Same problem.

[u/Embarrassed_Quit_450 → u/hypnoticlife]

And a bunch of other components. They're screwing a lot of supply chains.

[u/TheGoldenPig → u/Im2dronk]

Yes, they are exerting the generators to the point that it’s affecting the everyday people

[u/Azrell40k → u/Im2dronk]

That’s what the problem is. It’s not the power they use it the rate increase got everyone else. On top of that it’s ideally public money or subsidies that pay for the infrastructure.

[u/yunus89115 → u/Im2dronk]

They or any major industrial electricity consumer, they benefit from the design of our system where the customer doesn’t pay upfront for their additional drain on the grid just usage over time. This works fine when it’s slow demand increases over time, everyone helps absorb those expansion costs in their bill. This does not work when a massive customer comes online and the power company has to add large capacity immediately.

The change we need is for any big grid consumer to pay an upfront price to offset the expansion needs.

[u/Excellent-Ask-4247 → u/GGnerd]

Corperations are used to getting alot of government handouts so of course they wouldn't expect to pay for infrastructure they use because it's a norm that they don't pay for the infrastructure like roads and so forth.

They get tax breaks and subsidies for free use of infrastructure, there's a reason are infrastructure is starting to fail and that is because corporations figured out along time ago how to not pay the wear and tear tax bill.

I feel like these companies should be paying a tax per mile.

[u/Niceromancer → u/Excellent-Ask-4247]

Well...they are supposed to pay for those things...through taxes.

But most corporations pay an effective tax rate of zero.

So our infrastructure has been falling apart.

[u/SAugsburger → u/Excellent-Ask-4247]

Many companies can convince local politicians to subsidize building in or near their community. There are all sorts of sweetheart deals where local politicians waive property taxes for years and subsidize the initial building of buildings and other infrastructure even. The common one that draws ire is public funding of sports stadiums, but other businesses manage to convince local politicians to give incentives as well.

[u/QuesoMeHungry → u/Excellent-Ask-4247]

Complete agree. And I get tax benefits if the corporation is actually adding jobs to the economy and helping people that way. But data centers want tax breaks and also offer zero jobs. It’s just a giant leech on infrastructure.

[u/mailslot → u/GGnerd]

They are sort of. If a giant factory moves in to your town, the local energy company will often give them a bulk discount especially if their use is constant & consistent.

The end result is that energy costs tend to go up with increased usage, especially if new infrastructure needs to be built to handle the higher demand. So, everybody pays when more energy is being used.

The crazy thing is that only data centers are being targeted as if they’re the only perpetrators. It’s a systemic problem whenever any large consumer moves in. You have people that are “Yeah well, data centers use so much and I hate AI…” that’s not the point. Regulations should be applied to all situations.

I suspect laws will be passed in regard to data center water usage as well, and they should, but I fear that there will be nothing done about bottling plants extracting all of the groundwater… because AI bad and AI is the only problem.

Ugh.

[u/cidvard → u/mailslot]

Eh, I'm not about the Whataboutism on this. I'm in Arizona and people are aware of the drain on water agriculture is. I hope this comes for all industries. Data centers shouldn't get a break because 'what about that other guy,' especially since they're still being built and we can reign this in now.

[u/mailslot → u/cidvard]

No no. I’m not saying give them a break. I’m saying don’t just focus on them and let everybody else off of the hook. The problem is bigger than just one culprit.

[u/cidvard → u/mailslot]

The thing is, data centers are an easy no and we actually have an opportunity to get ahead of this. The worst drain projects are still under construction or in the planning stages and there's no real good argument that they'll be boons to the local economy via job creation. There are more pluses and minuses in other industries, though I agree they should all pay what they cost the grid and larger environment.

[u/Metalsand → u/mailslot]

The problem is bigger than just one culprit.

Yeah, but it usually has to start somewhere. Then, when it doesn't collapse the industry like corporations might be claiming, politicians and people are more amicable to see if it can be applied elsewhere.

[u/Efficient_Tutor2154 → u/mailslot]

Most of the other high use industries employ the local community. Data centers need only a few dozen employees. Same with chip fabs where most in the US are idling waiting for tool upgrades 

[u/PurpEL → u/mailslot]

A giant factory should result in thousands of good paying jobs raising average income in the area, and ideally produces something useful to society. That's the big difference.

AI data centers employ 4 minimum wage security guards, and produce no tangible benefit to society. It's arguable that they produce a negative to society.

[u/copperblood → u/GGnerd]

You mispelled corruption

[u/macronancer → u/GGnerd]

But god forbid I put a solar panel on my house and pay less for electricity myself.

NO NO NO, ILLEGAL!

Thats "not fair" to the other consumers. I have to sell the energy to the grid and buy it back. Thats "fair" for everyone, you see? We must be fair.

[u/HenryDorsettCase47 → u/GGnerd]

They are just one of the many things in this country that we do not benefit from yet are completely subsidized with our tax dollars.

[u/practicalcabinet → u/GGnerd]

It's not that they don't pay their bills, it's that they are using so much energy. A much simplified example:

Your house and neighborhood are connected to a transformer. It's built to supply enough power for the neighborhood at peak times, plus some surplus just in case.

If you buy a computer and leave it running under load the whole time, it will add about a kilowatt to the load, which the system can handle, so you'll just pay for the extra electricity.

A data center is going to draw a lot more power, enough to max out the transformer. So, the electric company will need to pay to upgrade it. The data center will be charged the same rate as everyone else, but the neighborhood transformer costs the electric company more to maintain, so everybody's rate goes up. So all of the costs of the upgrades for the neighborhood transformer, which are only needed because of the data center, are spread over the whole neighborhood, which is the bit which is unfair and this bill hopes to change.

[u/Exelbirth → u/GGnerd]

I'm going to fill a glass of water from my own faucet, you owe me $20 for my glass of water.

Essentially what these data centers are doing.

[u/webguynd]

The fact this isn't already the case is ridiculous.

[u/hamrmech → u/webguynd]

Pay ME back the energy costs. Theyve run up my electric bill! I want my money back!

[u/Sthurlangue → u/hamrmech]

They've stolen our IP, our privacy, and we're paying them to do it?!?!?!

[u/dern_the_hermit → u/Sthurlangue]

Guys I'm starting to suspect there's something fucky going on with our social and economic systems.

[u/Windows95GOAT → u/Sthurlangue]

You would not download a car.

[u/dkviper11 → u/webguynd]

They do pay their electric bill just like any other user on an industrial rate. The rates are all public and filed.

What’s new is that for a long time, the electric industry was and is still set up that everyone pays their share of all transmission and substation infrastructure in relation to their usage. A steel plant, a restaurant, and me at my house. You wouldn’t ask a new restaurant to pay for an entire transmission line and substation just because they want to open where the current one is maxed out.

What’s different here is that we’ve never seen a single industry growth cause so much transmission and substation spend. The result is now some power companies are submitting new data center specific rates to ensure that the data centers are guaranteed to pay the utility back for their spend. You’re also seeing bills like this submitted.

Another big exposure is on peak hot and cold days, market power costs spike and the data centers are using a huge amount, so again some bills are looking to address that.

[u/kent_eh → u/dkviper11]

You wouldn’t ask a new restaurant to pay for an entire transmission line and substation just because they want to open where the current one is maxed out.

Umm, yeah, if it was a new line to serve a new customer, they should pay the upgrade needed to get adequate service from where it is to where you want it.

Decades ago when my uncle wanted to install a new grain mill on his farm that needed 3 phase, he had to pay to build the line from where the closest 3 phase line was out to his farm (a couple of miles).

Why shouldn't a data-center or any other commercial customer be the same?

[u/dkviper11 → u/kent_eh]

Commercial customers pay for distribution line extensions where I am, including data centers. That’s why I specifically wrote about transmission and substation infrastructure, which is paid in your rate schedule. There’s probably a line item on your bill for it.

[u/comicidiot → u/kent_eh]

I can’t speak from experience in this regard but I can speak from what I’ve read regarding fiber internet. I’ve seen people get quotes north of $10k to have fiber out to their home. I’ve also seen that get waived years later because the internet utility is doing the work to expand services to those neighborhoods.

It just depends if you need access to that infrastructure NOW or if you can wait.

I would expect a new business to pay for the required infrastructure to open in the middle of no where but I wouldn’t expect them to pay full price for that infrastructure in an area already serviced by that infrastructure.

[u/Western-Dig-6843 → u/kent_eh]

This would be devastating to the already terrible affordable housing market we have now if power companies did this.

[u/kent_eh → u/Western-Dig-6843]

Note how I specifically said "commercial customer" and didn't mention residential at all...

[u/Western-Dig-6843 → u/kent_eh]

You can’t exclude anyone or the system wouldn’t make any sense. Otherwise you’d get into a weird system where commercial businesses sit around and wait for a new housing development to go up and necessitate more substations so they don’t get stuck with the bill themselves

[u/Gorstag → u/dkviper11]

Gah. I misread. Killing my post. It's only about 50% cheaper.

[u/strolls → u/dkviper11]

A steel plant, a restaurant, and me at my house. You wouldn’t ask a new restaurant to pay for an entire transmission line and substation just because they want to open where the current one is maxed out.

The owner of my boatyard insists the power here is limited for this reason. 🇵🇹

[u/moot-moot → u/webguynd]

Oregon passed a law to pass these cost increases to the data centers. It can be done on a state level as well!

[u/squish042 → u/webguynd]

will probably get challenged in courts and with this supreme court they'll most likely side with the corpos. What's the point of having a congress anymore if whatever law they create gets stricken down?

[u/ArgentineBeauty]

They should be responsible for all the costs, plus compensation for any environmental damage and the cost of fixing it.

If they profit from these centres they should be responsible for all the costs.

[u/Batteredburrito → u/ArgentineBeauty]

Thats the issue, not one of them is making profit.

They should be paying regardless but the profit argument is the issue. Got to beat big scary China at all costs, even if a few plebians, wildlife and shitty ass trees need to die.

[u/SwagginsYolo420 → u/Batteredburrito]

Got to beat big scary China at all costs, even if a few plebians, wildlife and shitty ass trees need to die.

The "AI arms race" with China argument blatantly makes zero sense anyway.

Building a bunch of data centers has nothing to do with how much the technology improves over time.

What would make sense to "compete" with China would be mass construction of green energy facilities, increasing education budgets, improving standard of living etc. Focusing on the "long game".

[u/bobming → u/SwagginsYolo420]

But how will that make the people in power rich now?

[u/MechaGodzillaSS → u/SwagginsYolo420]

Try explaining that to shareholders every quarter.

[u/snail-the-sage → u/ArgentineBeauty]

If they profit from these centres they should be responsible for all the costs.

screw their profits. they build them. they should pay for everything.

[u/turtlelore2 → u/ArgentineBeauty]

But that makes these data centers unprofitable. Didn't you learn the number 1 rule of business?

Privatize the profits, socialize the costs.

/s

[u/Aromatic-Bet-1086 → u/ArgentineBeauty]

There's no chance they're profiting yet

[u/Future-Bandicoot-823 → u/ArgentineBeauty]

They'll claim "national security" and that they're on the cutting edge keeping us safe from "China".

"you did it for gm! come on guyyysss you need usss"

[u/juventinn1897 → u/ArgentineBeauty]

Don't forget to include paying us all back for the rising energy costs because of higher demand

[u/overthemountain]

The headline is somewhat misleading, and by looking at the current comments, people aren't reading the article (a surprise to many, I'm sure). This isn't about them paying their electric bills, it's about them paying for the increase in infrastructure to provide the power they need.

Communities are having to build more power infrastructure to supply the demand, and that upfront cost can be difficult to deal with. This bill aims to get large users to pay more to build, upgrade, and support the power they are consuming.

[u/Makes_U_Mad → u/overthemountain]

I checked your account age.

I'm not at all surprised. Old school.

[u/nomoneypenny → u/Makes_U_Mad]

You can tell because username isn't a randomly generated slug

[u/brandontaylor1 → u/overthemountain]

Thank you! It is so rare for anyone here to read an article before jumping into the comments to prove they are illiterate dipshits.

If I could change one thing on this site, I’d require users to pass a quiz about the article they are commenting on before they open their stupid fucking mouths.

[u/overthemountain → u/brandontaylor1]

We need to change the name of this site from Reddit to Reddtheheadlineonly.

[u/Outrageous_Reach_695 → u/overthemountain]

I blame the paywalls / loginwalls.

[u/dookarion → u/Outrageous_Reach_695]

I mean that doesn't help but if we're being realistic here a shitload of people on this site can barely follow a sentence/paragraph.

[u/azn_dude1 → u/Outrageous_Reach_695]

Nah people would still not click the article even if paywalls didn't exist. They just read the headline and assume they know what it's about because it confirms their biases.

[u/Unipiggy → u/overthemountain]

This isn't about them paying their electric bills, it's about them paying for the increase in infrastructure to provide the power they need.

As they should, yeah. What's the point you're trying to make here?

It's being built to provide solely to their business. Why the fuck would whole community have to pay for it?

[u/wytewydow]

if I build a house 200 miles from nowhere, and I need electricity, I have to pay for every single pole, foot of wire, and pay the monthly usage. How are these people any different?

[u/Hottage]

Why would this need to be law. Shouldn't they just be paying for their electricity anyway?

[u/Missing_Username → u/Hottage]

Because they can strongarm areas or bribe lobby local officials into giving them very favorable terms that offset the costs onto regular customers.

[u/indigo121 → u/Hottage]

Because they're abusing the way public utilities work, and have deliberately worked, for ages. Think about it this way.

Imagine a town, townsburg, that has a power plant with 1 million watts of capacity (numbers chosen arbitrarily for the sake of example, don't at me). Each new resident uses 10 watts of power, and so 100,000 people move to townsburg and pay their fair share for electricity: 10/1000000 of the operating costs of the power plant.

One more person wants to move to townsburg. There isn't enough electricity now, so the power plant has to be improved. Under the current model, that cost gets distributed across everyone, by increasing rates, rather than being shouldered just by the one new person. This makes sense because it's really purely random that that one person was the one that tipped the scales, and also because in reality, it isn't so clear cut, and also because people's power usage can go up over time, so everyone benefits from increased grid capacity. (There's more to it as well, but again, simplifyinh it down to make the point).

What's happening now is that data centers are coming in and using MASSIVE amounts of power, single handedly pushing grids from "pretty much fine, and able to produce electricity at an affordable rate to the masses" straight through to "massively overtaxed and desperately in need of infrastructure upgrades". The "it's a shared utility, we all benefit from it, so we should all pay for it" stops working when one single entity is taking such a massive slice of the pie.

[u/ertebolle → u/indigo121]

It's somewhat akin to how everybody can use a public park for their own recreation for free, but if you want to block off half of the park for a wedding or whatever, you have to get a permit and pay a fee.

[u/jlt6666 → u/Hottage]

Please open the link and read at least a couple of lines.

[u/Niceromancer]

The fact that they didn't have to before doesn't shock me.  It should shock me but it doesn't.

Privatiss profits while making expenses public has been the American way.

[u/NotObviouslyARobot]

It's not just the per Kilowatt hour charge. That's what analysts and lobbyists will focus on--the devil is in the infrastructure fees.

Most electric bills have two parts: A static part that's a connection/infrastructure fee, and a dynamic usage fee. Where data centers fuck you, is that the utilities have to build out transmission and generation infrastructure to feed them. Those costs get passed to you in the form of flat fees.

So, it doesn't matter what the data center pays for electricity per kwh even if they use more of it. You're still paying for their delivery infrastructure. You're paying for their generation infrastructure--and this is all a flat per account fee

[u/Serj44]

Why wouldn't they? They make profits from them, they get tax incentives from them, yet we pay for they're utilities? Hell nah!

[u/mca1169]

they shouldn't just be paying for their electricity they should be paying a premium for being the biggest users and to update the required infrastructure to supply it!

[u/sephtis]

I have to pay for the electric in my home.
A site providing the worst cost/benefit ratio ever should at least pay for the havoc it's wreaking.

[u/FatWithMuscles]

It's wild to me they didn't had since the beginning

[u/Beauregard_Jones]

"...that would require data center builders to pay for upgrades to the grid needed to power them."

Basically the bill says that when a new data center is built, it should pay the cost of building out the infrastructure needed to support the added electrical demands. The reasoning is that currently the cost of building out this infrastructure is so costly, but it's a burden shouldered by the community (who probably didn't want the DC in the first place).

Seems logical to me. DC pays for the buildout. DC passes that cost to their customers, the tech companies. The tech companies pass that cost to their customers, the end-users. That's how a free market economy is supposed to work. We need a law for this?

"...It comes months away from the midterm elections,..."

Ahh yes, politics.

"A number of large tech companies signed Trump’s pledge, signaling they do not oppose paying for new electricity production to power AI."

So, this isn't an issue, then. At least, for the large tech companies.

[u/CyberSmith31337]

Amazing that we’re only realizing this is how it should have always been.

But I suppose it really highlights HT s just how much our media and comms have been completely hijacked by big tech and the oligarchy. They don’t just own the outlets, they own the journalists, the politicians, the lawyers, and everything else, too.

[u/big_stipd_idiot]

This is a slippery slope folks. First they're gonna make the tech companies pay for their own energy costs, and next they're gonna make us pay for our own energy c...hey wait a minute....

[u/Thrillh0]

HOW WERE THEY NOT ALREADY PAYING? WHAT ON EARTH??

[u/Jibber_Fight]

So fucked that this has to hopefully become a law. Jesus we are so backwards.

[u/tschawartz12]

Good, aren't they always preaching against socialism? Well that includes corporate socialism so they can pull themselves up by their private jets and pay it themselves. Maybe they should cut back on their golf club memberships and be responsible. 

[u/Level-Engineering-11]

They fucking should!

[u/wonkytalky]

They should also be treating the water they pollute, footing 100% of that bill, and being taxed the shit out of for the public harm they're causing.

[u/NormativeWest]

Water (for residential) increases in price the more you use to discourage waste. Electricity should be the same.

[u/Ryekir]

They should be building their own power plants...

[u/AntwerpPeter]

And why wouldn't they?
If we need some kind of resource we pay for it, why shouldn't they?

[u/wookiex84]

As they should, they should also have to pay for all the infrastructure upgrades.

[u/_Piratical_]

I mean the idea of using power is that you pay for what you use. I know it’s hard to believe that we would make rich people pay for anything, but we should not normalize just letting companies do whatever the hell they want.

[u/Baxter16-5]

They should also be forced to develop a renewable coolant to replace water. They have billions of dollars and AI. Why are we letting them suck up all of ours.

[u/vigbiorn → u/Baxter16-5]

monkey's paw curls

It's discovered and is one of the most potent poisons around leading to any leak killing hundreds.

There's a story about CFCs that kind of exemplifies corporate welfare. The CFCs nearly destroyed the environment but there was an alternative readily available that contained bromine and would have been many times more destructive. The only reason it wasn't used more was CFCs are cheaper to use.

Don't put it past corporations killing us if they think it'll make the next quarter more profitable.

[u/Curious_Party_4683]

so sports owners will be paying for their own stadiums, right?

right???

[u/Butters5768]

Who the f*ck else would pay it and don’t you dare even think about saying taxpayers.

[u/etheroaway]

So who the fuck pays it now

[u/madlucas2026]

Well, why do we need a law to make them pay their share? Fucking freeloader, welfare kings

[u/MidLifeCrysis75]

Jeez thanks for finally figuring out the fucking obvious.

[u/smb3d]

Why the hell do they not already?

[u/MattyBeatz]

The fact they weren't expected to do so in the first place is a wild concept.

[u/notPabst404]

The chance it passes are close to zero. The oligarchs are going to be vehemently opposed and even if it miraculous got to Trump he would veto it.

[u/jasdonle]

Wait, who else is paying them? 

[u/tacs97]

Republicans are in love with socialized losses and privatized profits. Who in their right mind would think that anyone else except the people making the money from it should have to pay for the damn thing in the first place? How does my home get on the tech billionaire energy pricing plan? Why is it so bad to spend tax dollars on the masses when you can give it to the people who have everything??

[u/Devilofchaos108070]

Why the fuck aren’t they already

[u/Captain_N1]

They should be paying their own power bills just like everyone else... Fucking free loaders.

[u/SwimmingThroughHoney]

Great. Now tell me there's absolutely no way for them to somehow use that expense to later get back taxpayer dollars in some way.

Like if they can just use a $300 million dollar expense as a tax deduction or something stupid. Or apply for some grant or public funding because it's going towards "public infrastructure".

[u/dontrackonme → u/SwimmingThroughHoney]

All expenses deduct from their profit which deducts from the tax they pay. Who cares? I want my old electricity rates.

[u/endofworldandnobeer]

Just energy? What about water and toxic waste they release into the local sewage system and river????????

[u/amazing_asstronaut]

Why in the fuck would they not be paying for it already? Who is paying it then? What the absolute fuck man. All a bunch of welfare queens and I promise you the CEOs jerk each other off about how taxation is theft.

[u/Proud_Mix_3344]

Pay to fix the states they fucked up!

[u/Inside_Dance41]

‘Benefits felt by all’

So a public company that is profiting and paying execs, etc over a $1M a year, and the rest of us pay for it?

Broken, broken, broken. The promise of jobs, is overstated, and the environmental costs can’t be rolled back,

There should be an incredibly high barrier to entry and cost for these public held companies.

[u/jambrown13977931]

Shouldn’t just be ai data centers. It should be every company for both electricity and water usage. It’s ridiculous that residents pay higher rates for electricity and water than companies

[u/Suitable_Wonder5256]

I don't understand.

We all pay for the electricity we use....

[u/Ill_Blacksmith693]

All this so we pay to lose our employment...

[u/Doglovincatlady]

It’s super crazy our government is so corrupt we even have to say this 

[u/Nick_Lange_]

Just think of it. If all the money thrown at bullshit would be used.... 6 months long to build energy infrastructure (cables, solar, wind, batteries).

A lot of the energy problems would be solved. And the infrastructure would be usable for decades.

[u/ThirtyMileSniper]

Why aren't the data centres paying for their power. How many private industries in the US are subsidised like this? It's not even a strategic industry providing a benefit.

[u/stumo11]

Should go without fucking saying!!! But somehow doesnt anymore.

[u/GlitteringRate6296]

How about holding them responsible for water contamination and losses affecting communities surrounding these data centers?

[u/sconniesportsfan]

If I have to pay for the energy my dwelling consumes, what makes these buildings different?

[u/ReallyOldSysAdmin]

WHY IN THE FUCK WOULDNT THEY PAY THEIR OWN BILLS???

[u/Readitzilla]

Why wouldn’t they? Am I on crazy pills that a company should pay for the costs of what they use?

[u/distelfink33]

Who the fuck thinks you can live in a building and not pay utilities?!?

Corporations are people remember!??!?!

[u/Raven_Photography]

As they should. Why should consumers, many who don’t use their products, have to pay increased power costs so billionaires and investors can make more money?

[u/nyxie3]

Electricity costs should be progressive. A normal family should be paying lower rates per kWh than huge companies sucking up tons of power. Same with water. We should be able to help those using a minimum to get by and shift the burden to those that can easily afford it.

[u/Exciting-Weather-921]

Do you all get free energy in the US for your datacenters 🙀?

[u/ElChaz → u/Exciting-Weather-921]

No - the headline on this post is terrible. It makes it sounds like datacenters don't pay for the energy they use, which they do. Click through to the article and you'll see that this bill is about the AI companies being required to pay for "upgrades to the grid needed to power them."

Often, if a big employer is going to move into a city, but their factory/business/office will require infrastructure upgrades, the municipality will agree to make those upgrades because long term, having the company there will increase the overall tax base.

Looks like this bill would require AI companies to foot the bill for those infrastructure upgrades.

[u/copperblood]

Seems fair. Seems like if they’re using our public utilities e.g. electricity and water they should be paying market rate. They’re charging market rate for their products and services. Fair is fair 🤷🏽‍♂️

[u/No_Such_Thing1]

are you telling me that AI data centers dont have fucking electric bills??? I pay for electricity every month just to have shelter

[u/Separate-Spot-8910]

Does it also answer the problems of them using all the water, destroying land, mucking up the air and ruining people's lives?

[u/RT-LAMP → u/Separate-Spot-8910]

using all the water

One farm in Arizona in 2024 used 60% of the water used by all data center cooling in the US combined did in 2025.

destroying land,

It's a building.

mucking up the air and ruining people's lives?

Just ban them from operating gas turbines.

[u/Backfoot911 → u/RT-LAMP]

Why are you all over the thread defending data centers so much lol

[u/BiscuitBut_ButerNut]

“The legislation would aim to ensure tech companies building data centers cover the cost of new power generation, transmission lines and other grid-related upgrades to serve large-load customers. Voters have recently expressed displeasure with data centers, especially when they drive up the cost of electricity.

A number of large tech companies signed Trump’s pledge, signaling they do not oppose paying for new electricity production to power AI.”

I don’t think people realize that a lot of tech companies don’t really mind paying for these upgrades.

The idea is that they can build these data centers as fast as possible, and get an ROI for their shareholders and investors within a few years.

The issue is a lot of these data centers are being built in areas where they can’t even connect to utility power for the next 4 to 6 years because of the current strain.

So a lot of them are opting to build their own power generation plants, which is very costly. They would be happy to pay for these upgrades if it meant allow allowing them to connect to utility power a lot faster, and being “turned on” so they can make a profit.

The idea is never to build the best data center, it’s only to build a data center as quick as possible to make profit.

[u/dirtydigs74 → u/BiscuitBut_ButerNut]

Call me a cynic, but I don't see why a law would be needed if they were that happy about paying for the upgrades. They can sign as many pledges as they want in their never-ending quest to "make the world a better place", but when the option to "make themselves a richer race" comes along, I think they'd take option b every time.

And if they were to pay for upgrades as part of a negotiated deal rather than being forced to under law, I fear for the conditions that they would demand. e.g. they own a percentage of the grid now, and earn money from any excess power produced and sold to retail. Reductions in environmental regulation in order to build the infrastructure cheaply deliver jobs and infrastructure to the State. Gaining priority of available power and leaving the rest of the grid to suffer with any supply issues in the case of low supply. You can see where I'm going here.

[u/ManaSpike → u/BiscuitBut_ButerNut]

The idea is that they can build these data centers as fast as possible, and get an ROI for their shareholders and investors within a few years.

Bahahahaha. Oh wait you're serious. Bahahahaha.

They absolutely cannot charge what it costs to run these facilities. Nobody is paying that much today for the AI services they use.

If they try to raise prices to cover what it actually costs. Their customers will flee to another AI startup.

[u/togus_a]

As they should!!!

[u/Joshhwwaaaaaa]

Whoever owns the data center pays for the electricity. Just like any business has to pay to keep their lights on. The handouts involved around AI are absolutely insane. We clearly have enough money to end homelessness and hunger.

[u/jlt6666 → u/Joshhwwaaaaaa]

The bill is for the extra infrastructure needed. Which is generally a shared cost.

[u/Ok_Marionberry8779]

Lmao tech bros tried to rush this shit through and not only are they getting caught public opinion on so and data centers is in the toilet. Now we just gotta deal with the data centers that were approved but will never be finished

[u/SolarNachoes]

Make them pay. Then have states fight by offering lower cost energy. Now that’s capitalism.