Three Democratic U.S. senators opened an investigation into how data centers are driving up monthly consumer power bills by sending letters demanding answers to seven firms developing the facilities, including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc.
“On top of failing to pay their fair share of their electricity rates, tech companies regularly hide as much information as possible from the communities in which their data centers will be built,” wrote Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
The letters, dated Monday, were also sent to executives of Meta Platforms Inc., CoreWeave, Digital Realty and Equinix.
Massive new data centers that run artificial intelligence consume so much electricity that they can drive up power bills for other customers, both because they require expensive new grid infrastructure and because they increase the wholesale cost of power. A Bloomberg News investigation, which was cited in the lawmakers’ letter, found that electricity now costs as much as 267% more for a single month than it did five years ago in areas located near significant data center activity.
Power bills are going up at a time when affordability has become a major political issue. Democrats notched several key victories in November’s elections after the party coalesced around a message of addressing pocketbook issues.
“To protect consumers, data centers must pay a greater share of the costs upfront for future energy usage and updates to the electrical grid provided specifically to accommodate data centers’ energy needs,” wrote the senators, who requested answers from the executives by Jan. 12.
Microsoft, Meta and CoreWeave declined to comment. Representatives of the other companies didn’t immediately provide comment.
Saul, Nicoletti and Bass write for Bloomberg.
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