TECH

The public pays the price for the data centers of big tech companies

Bill Gates recently made headlines by suggesting that climate change is no longer a priority, but the American public vehemently disagrees.

In this last election, climate change was a crucial issue in states like Virginia and Georgia, where voters were confronted with rising energy costs. And as much as tech billionaires try to distract us, rising energy costs and worsening weather conditions are directly linked to the race by corporations like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon to dominate the artificial intelligence landscape.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the price of energy has risen more than twice the rate of inflation since 2020, and the pressure from big tech companies for more energy-intensive data centers is only making the situation worse.

Data centers proliferating across the country are driving up energy costs, fueling energy-hungry generative artificial intelligence, cloud storage, digital networks, and other energy-intensive programs—many of which are powered by coal and natural gas, exacerbating climate change.

In some cases, data centers consume enough electricity to power the equivalent of a small city. Wholesale electricity prices in areas hosting data centers have risen a staggering 267% compared to five years ago—and ordinary consumers are bearing the brunt of these costs.

Americans are also bearing the increasing costs stemming from extreme weather.

The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies noted that insurance prices rose 74% between 2008 and 2024—and that between 2018 and 2023, nearly 2 million people had their policies canceled by insurers due to climate risks.

However, house prices have risen 40% in the last two decades—meaning the cost of repairing and rebuilding homes after climate disasters has also increased, while wages remain stagnant.

Data centers aren't just putting our wallets at risk. Power grids across the country are already strained due to outdated infrastructure and repeated impacts during extreme weather events.

The added pressure to power energy-intensive data centers only increases the risk of blackouts during emergencies like wildfires, severe frosts, and hurricanes. And in some communities, people's taps have literally run dry because data centers have consumed all the local groundwater.

Even worse, the energy demand from big tech companies for artificial intelligence has triggered a resurgence of polluting energy, with the construction of new gas-fired power plants and the postponement of the closure of fossil fuel-fired plants. The tech industry is even pushing for the revitalization of nuclear power, including the planned reopening in 2028 of Three Mile Island—site of the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history—to help fuel Microsoft's data centers.

Ordinary people bear the brunt of the greed of big tech companies. We pay for it with ever-increasing energy bills, severe climate change, lack of access to clean water, increased noise pollution, and risks to our health and safety.

It doesn't have to be this way. Instead of increasing our bills, depleting our local resources, and destabilizing our climate, big tech companies could create more jobs in the energy sector, reduce our electricity bills, and support communities.

We can demand that tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Amazon fulfill their commitments to use 100% renewable energy and not rely on fossil fuels and nuclear power to fuel their data centers. We can insist that data centers be installed only where they are needed, guaranteeing communities full transparency and protection regarding the impacts of energy use, water access, and noise pollution.

The current government is ignoring its obligations to the American public by refusing to regulate large technology companies. But tech billionaires still have a responsibility to the very public on whom they depend for their existence.

Michi Trota is editor-in-chief of Green America. This opinion piece was distributed by OtherWords.org