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Posted on 07/23/2026 8:25:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The topic of data centers – those nondescript lines of buildings that enable us to run Google searches and AI models all the livelong day – has become a hot political topic this year. The NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) crowd doesn't want them in their communities, but no one really wants to scale back their digital diets in order to absorb the impact having fewer data centers would have on all of us.
A real conundrum, it would seem. If we want to keep up with technological advances, they have to go somewhere.
Here in Virginia, a huge intra-party fight broke out in the state Democrat caucus over whether or not to extend existing tax breaks to data center operators. The Old Dominion has more operating data centers than any other state, and it's not even particularly close: 398 (with most of them clustered in Northern Virginia) compared to runner-up Texas with 296.
Virginia has attracted so much data center business because of the generous tax breaks it offers on expensive things like servers. The Democrat family feud broke out when one side wanted to kill off the incentives because businesses are evil, while Gov. Abigail Spanberger's side wanted to extend the tax breaks so she could continue to cosplay as a "moderate" for a while longer. Eventually, they agreed to keep the tax breaks and add a new electricity tax, because that's what Democrats do.
SEE ALSO: Georgia, Texas, Virginia: New Data Centers Mean Cheaper Electricity
'Data Center Diva' and 'Amazon Don': Virginia Democrats Air Budget Feud in Public
President Trump is addressing this same issue, but on a national level. In a Thursday afternoon visit to the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the president promoted the expansion of his “Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” the goal of which is to "guarantee that data centers’ energy needs will not increase household electricity costs for American citizens."
In his Thursday remarks, the president said his administration was making "incredible progress" in its efforts "to ensure that as new data centers go up... electricity bills for American families will actually come down..."
.@POTUS: "We're here today to continue the incredible progress we’re making in communities nationwide to ensure that as new data centers go up... electricity bills for American families will actually come down... With the Trump Administration's Ratepayer Protection Plan, American… pic.twitter.com/ePXPI6NIY2— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 23, 2026
.@POTUS: "We're here today to continue the incredible progress we’re making in communities nationwide to ensure that as new data centers go up... electricity bills for American families will actually come down... With the Trump Administration's Ratepayer Protection Plan, American innovators and consumers [win] together because we're insisting that AI data centers and big tech companies pay their own way."
He also revealed that over 220 utilities, companies, state governments had signed on as partners in those efforts. These partners pledge to "protect American consumers from price hikes due to data center energy and infrastructure requirements, and lower electricity costs for consumers in the long term."
.@POTUS: "Since I introduced this plan just a few months ago, more than 220 utilities, tech companies, state governments and other partners have signed our Ratepayer Protection Pledge. Electricity rates for 80% of the power distributed in America are now being kept in check by… https://t.co/XRphqsuxvK pic.twitter.com/xJCXWeLMcY— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 23, 2026
President Trump may be trying to quell the AI/data center backlash that seems to be brewing on the right. A new group called Humans First held a series of protests last weekend over what they've billed as "Big AI" taking over American communities.
AI data centers are ground zero for Big AI imposing on our lives. The unaccountable build out of data centers, with no say from communities and significant local impacts, is an unacceptable infringement on our liberty.
These data centers are a necessary evil, perhaps, but Trump’s message seems to be that “necessary” doesn’t have to mean everyday Americans get stuck with the bill.
And that’s the distinction the White House is trying to draw as the backlash grows: America can’t realistically win the AI race and maintain its technological edge without building more data centers. But, neither should hardworking families have to watch their electric bills spike because of the staggering amounts of power needed to run them.
Let's face it, the data centers are coming whether we like it or not. The real political fight now is who is going to pay for them.
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People don’t like them blowing through all the fresh water either. All to allow our fellow citizens to record their life on social media and to store three hundred thousand movies on the RooKoo Channel.
The movie count I can see.
Paying subscription services above the Internet bill, nope.
For some of those subscription prices, I have seen credible pricing for portable storage drives, to hold your beloved movies.
At least that way, if you miss a subscription payment, you still have all your movies.
Yes, I’ve been bit before. Paid the subscription one day, next day get email broadcasting bankruptcy, lost all things stored there.
” the data centers are coming whether we like it or not.”
We got by without them just a few years back.
They used to be merely house servers.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-the-growth-of-global-data-center-capacity-2005-2025/
Opponents fussing about water etc, why can’t data centers have a closed loop cooling system like autos do ?
>People don’t like them blowing through all the fresh water either. All to allow our fellow citizens to record their life on social media and to store three hundred thousand movies on the RooKoo Channel.
That’s the line I’ve read — and then *ahem* it seems to be th mantra of the people running with the support of Bernie, Tlaib, AOC, etc.
Other reports suggest that no, they’re doing what seems the obvious thing and cycling the water like a closed-loop geothermal or the radiator in your car.
Anyway agreed water is a key thing (noise is the third) and that also seems like something Trump can handle rather than have 10,000 little fiefdom wars in municipalities or give the SDA/communist wing a wedge to get into power.
What a fool and so out of touch with reality.
Everybody knows they will have to pay for everything. Including higher bills. Govrnment and corporations pay nothing. It gets passed down to the individual.
One way or another the citizen consumer ends up paying. The question is whether the benefits are worth the costs?
Even if the AI centers generate their own electricity they still have to buy fuel and are they paying for the gas infrastructure upgrades necessary to deliver it or is Harry Homeowner just subsidizing another energy source for AI?
Are the benefits really worth the cost to feed the AI beast? Maintaining the surveillance state isn’t going to be cheap.
Supply and Demand.
Build your own mini data center — Synology NAS, four 5 TB drives, a UPS, and Plex. That’s what I’ve done.
Every state I know of has a rate regulation process that separates residential and commercial electrical power customers into separate groups and subclasses. When you look at the “rate sheet” for your local utility there are a mind numbing array of rate classes all designed to recover the cost of serving those classes from the class members themselves. The process is approved by a regulatory body that holds public hearings (which almost no one attends). There may be reasons to oppose a particular data center project in a particular location, but misallocation of expenses for providing them power will not be one of them.
Two words for everyone Bloom Energy. Fuel cell energy off the grid. Reliability 99.999999999 and environmental impact zero.
Can you use non-Synology drives with your setup?
Great idea
Only if DSA runs the country.
Prove that companies will not pass down costs to the consumer.
Companies will not eat the costs. They are in the business to make money.
There are a number of these in my are with new ones on the way. I have no idea if all these data centers are the cause but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my electric bill had doubled in the last year :(
Yes we did...now its an exponential explosion of them.
Me thinks it ain’t for movies of grandma and itunes.
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