As Electricity Costs Rise, Everyone Wants Data Centers to Pick Up Their Tab. But How?
Data centers keep spreading fast, and some use as much electricity as a small city.
HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 13, 2026 (AP) — As outrage spreads over energy-hungry data centers, politicians from President Donald Trump to local lawmakers have found rare bipartisan agreement over insisting that tech companies — and not regular people — must foot the bill for the exorbitant amount of electricity required for artificial intelligence.
But that might be where the agreement ends.
The price of powering data centers has become deeply intertwined with concerns over the cost of living, a dominant issue in the upcoming midterm elections that will determine control of Congress and governors’ offices.
