Overview

• Consumer electricity prices rose 6.2% year over year in August, the highest increase in more than two years, with analysts tying much of the pressure to data‑center demand.
• The Unleashing Low-Cost Rural AI Act would direct the Energy, Interior and Agriculture departments to study rural impacts from AI data centers, including costs, reliability and siting prospects.
• PJM, the largest U.S. power market, attributes about $9.3 billion in additional ratepayer costs to data‑center development in its region.
• Federal outlooks show record U.S. electricity consumption in 2025–2026 and a growing supply gap, with DOE warning only about 22 GW of firm capacity is expected by 2030 versus roughly 104 GW needed for peaks.
• Tech leaders are floating space‑based data centers as a future option, but experts and startups describe the concept as experimental, costly and far from competing with terrestrial facilities.