New Tennessee law requires data center owners to pay full electricity, infrastructure costs
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/new-tennessee-law-requires-data-center-owners-to-pay-full-electricity-infrastructure-costs/ar-AA24uYNf
That's a step in the right direction.
Honestly, it is and it isn't.
I don't know what the answer is, but this is an issue with the expansion of EV chargers too.
Let's say I want to launch a new truck stop that will charge electric trucks. Or let's say that I want to add a major solar farm to the grid. Both of these, for sure the latter, are a net social good.
But in the US, you have to pay ALL the downstream costs. So that solar farm simply doesn't get built because the solar generator has to upgrade every transformer down the line that is impacted. The project pencils out if they can hook up the panels and run 20 miles of line, but it doesn't when they have to upgrade hundreds of miles of line and dozens of transformers.
I don't think any other country does it this way.
So it seems like a good idea when you're taking down the big bad data center. But similar policies also take down solar farms, wind farms, electric charging truck stops, even a high-draw manufacturing facility in a depressed town.
I think a better policy would be to build some new, upgraded "backbone" grid similar to the internet backbone that serves the places that generate and use a lot of juice. A superhighway for electrons.
In first, California city overwhelmingly votes to permanently ban datacenters | California | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/03/california-monterey-park-datacenters-ban
> Monterey
This is like the highway system and the electric system playing out all over again. Places that actually use the capacity it that are wealthy and have the leisure to make a ruckus get them banned so they get pushed to places like where Heather lives (hopefully not) where people have less power but they also are responsible for a tiny percentage of the usage.
:-*
But, but, but...
This morning's local rag article in an extremely rural, red, farm-centric county;
County puts 12-month freeze on data center development | Local News
https://www.dailyadvance.com/news/local/county-puts-12-month-freeze-on-data-center-development/article_8c03c9d3-1683-4cd2-87f0-337124c82510.html
The word is out. Even here.
Operating costs just went up fof some DCs
Portland General Electric to increase data center rates by 29%, cut residential rates by 1.3% - OPB
https://www.opb.org/article/2026/06/04/data-centers-utility-rate-pge/
We're on a roll.
New York just passed a one-year temporary ban on data centers
https://scienceaim.com/new-york-just-passed-a-one-year-temporary-ban-on-data-centers/
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to suspend tax breaks offered to data centers
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2028-election/illinois-gov-jb-pritzker-suspend-tax-breaks-offered-data-centers-rcna348537
Major indexes in the U.S. all fell at least 1.3% on Friday, tumbling as tech stocks took a dive that contributed to a poor day for the Nasdaq, which dropped over 4% amid the selloff.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2026/06/05/nasdaq-plummets-4-as-tech-selloff-triggers-market-drop/
> suspend tax breaks
For the love of all that is holy, when will towns, counties and states realize these tax breaks are almost always a terrible idea?
Any chance this will encourage a more general evaluation - more jurisdictions, more business types?
Tech stocks lead market bloodbath as fears of Fed rate hikes add to worries about the AI-fueled chip boom petering out
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/tech-stocks-lead-market-bloodbath-223323218.html
2.6% off the S&P 500 is a bloodbath?