U.S. Lawmakers Blame AI Data Centers for Electric Bill Hikes

Big Tech’s rapid build out of large AI data centers that voraciously consume electricity and water resources has some Washington lawmakers crying foul, saying these facilities are greatly contributing to rising utility costs for household consumers.

In recent months, bipartisan criticism has come from lawmakers, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who sent a letter in October to the head of Midwest utility company Ameren for “seeking dramatic rate increases in order to supply massive data centers and industrial users.” The utility is seeking rate increases that would hike household electric costs by about 15%, the senator said in the letter.

“Ameren’s recent agreements to provide hundreds of megawatts of power to new data centers raise serious concerns about cross-subsidization,” Hawley said. “Has Ameren analyzed how these industrial contracts will affect residential prices? If so, please produce that analysis.”

Last month, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wrote to the White House Office of Science and Technology and Department of Commerce heads demanding answers about the steps being taken to measure the burden on consumers from rising utility costs due to AI data centers.

In their letter, the senators charge that the Trump administration has “cozied up to Meta, Google, Oracle, OpenAI, and other Big Tech companies, fast-tracking and pushing for the buildout of power-hungry data centers across the country.”

U.S. households, they said, should not be expected “to bankroll Big Tech’s infrastructure through excessive electricity bills and threats to their water supplies.”

Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-CA), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, led a group of 20 Democrats in writing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Edison Electric Institute, and the Data Center Coalition requesting information to help ensure that households and small businesses “aren’t bearing the brunt of data center energy costs.”

Data centers are forecast to account for up to 12% of total U.S. electricity demand by 2028, a 4% increase from 2023, the group said in the letter. Noting their support for U.S. innovation and competitiveness, the group raised concern that the costs associated with developing and powering data centers could undermine energy affordability nationwide.

“Our energy system is at a unique inflection point. With roughly half of the grid needing replacement and demand expected to grow dramatically, the U.S. faces both a challenge and an opportunity to meet America’s energy needs for the next century,” the lawmakers said. “The decisions made now will determine whether America can sustain the growth of critical infrastructure like data centers while keeping electricity reliable and affordable.”

Data centers are facilities that contain rows of computers, data storage systems, and networking equipment, as well as the energy and cooling systems they need to run, according to Pew Research Center.

Electricity consumption hit a record high in 2024, which could rise further if data center expansions continue at their current pace, Pew said in a report last October. It also noted a study by Carnegie Mellon University showing that data centers and cryptocurrency mining could result in an 8% increase in the average electric bill by 2030, which could potentially exceed 25% in the highest-demand markets of central and northern Virginia.

In general, an AI-focused hyperscale data center consumes as much power as 100,000 households, according to the report. The International Energy Agency, it said, predicts that the larger data centers currently under construction are expected to use 20 times as much.

The report also showed that U.S. data centers consumed about 17 billion gallons of water in 2023, with hyperscale and colocation* facilities accounting for about 84% of that amount. By 2028, the number could reach 33 billion gallons a year, according to the report.

*Colocation refers to the placement of an organization’s own servers and other essential computing hardware for data storage in rented space within a physical data center owned and/or operated by a third party.

Estimates vary on the number of data centers per state because there is no federal registration requirement for data centers, Pew said. One source, the Data Center Map database, estimated that Connecticut has a total of 61 data centers, with the greatest concentration in Norwich.