"yeah the government is bankrupting us to death but it's only in some zip codes so it's all cool"
Not to mention electricity prices have already gone up such a similar percentage since 2020 already, so those people are already looking at a 500% increase versus say 2020, and their salaries have not gone up that percentage I can bet a finger.
I can't see the article- but a little research on ERCOT's wholesale pricing maps reveals two things: 1) today's prices are somewhere between -$200 and +$200 and 2) theres 900+ discrete pricing locales in Texas.
It's frustrating seeing this issue framed as a big tech issue, and not as an issue of government refusing to govern. Not only are local governments welcoming these data centers, but they're giving them tax breaks to move into town. If it's going to cause the quality of life of your citizens to supply these data centers with water/power, the least you could do is not give them a tax break for doing so.
Agreed, but again, my issue is not at companies buying influence, but politicians selling it. The companies would be dumb not to, as there will be someone else who will. Politicians are put there specifically to govern this, and instead are selling influence. There is no accountability for them.
Searching for "267%", I think the source of this claim is a misinterpretation of Bloomberg's September article on datacenters: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-data-centers-elec...
I that article, 267% represents the highest increase seen. It's not any sort of average. It's odd that it's reappeared in this article now.
"yeah the government is bankrupting us to death but it's only in some zip codes so it's all cool"
Not to mention electricity prices have already gone up such a similar percentage since 2020 already, so those people are already looking at a 500% increase versus say 2020, and their salaries have not gone up that percentage I can bet a finger.
The 267% number is the rise from 2020-2025, so it already includes that.
I can't see the article- but a little research on ERCOT's wholesale pricing maps reveals two things: 1) today's prices are somewhere between -$200 and +$200 and 2) theres 900+ discrete pricing locales in Texas.
And, here's a bit of reading on the process for a customer requiring >75MW: https://www.dlapiper.com/en-us/insights/publications/2026/03...
Non-paywalled: https://web.archive.org/web/20260527033649/https://www.thegl...
It's frustrating seeing this issue framed as a big tech issue, and not as an issue of government refusing to govern. Not only are local governments welcoming these data centers, but they're giving them tax breaks to move into town. If it's going to cause the quality of life of your citizens to supply these data centers with water/power, the least you could do is not give them a tax break for doing so.
Wave more money than the GDP of your entire town or region.
Let’s stop pretending money doesn’t give a disproportionate amount of influence to a representative government, before things get perpetually violent.
Agreed, but again, my issue is not at companies buying influence, but politicians selling it. The companies would be dumb not to, as there will be someone else who will. Politicians are put there specifically to govern this, and instead are selling influence. There is no accountability for them.
The headlines say more about where data centers are built and less around case and effect