Three Democratic U.S. senators announced Tuesday they are investigating whether big tech companies are passing the rising utility costs of “energy-guzzling” data centers onto ordinary Americans. The trio sent letters to the heads of Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta, as well as data center operators CoreWeave, Digital Realty and Equinix, demanding greater transparency, cost-sharing and accountability.
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut wrote that they were concerned by reports These data centers caused residential electricity bills to “skyrocket”. Areas with significant data center activity have already suffered price increases up to 267% In the last five years, three MPs wrote. The average cost of an American household’s electricity bill had increased 7% year-over-year as of September, according to the Energy Information Administration, a federal agency.
“Through these utility price increases, American households control tech companies’ electricity costs to the tune of trillions of dollars,” he said, demanding that data centers and tech companies “pay their fair share of electricity rates” and “pay a larger portion of the cost upfront for future energy use.”
Lawmakers asked companies for more information about their current and projected number of data centers and their energy usage, as well as what actions have been taken to prevent electricity costs from being passed onto consumer energy bills. He also inquired about tax cuts or other financial incentives these companies received from state and local governments, as well as payments made to lobbyists and consultants to advocate for the construction of data centers. They requested responses before January 12, 2026.
The rapid expansion of AI – and the fact that a single data center can “use substantial power.” electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes“, according to senators – that means utility companies have spent billions of dollars building new transmission lines and power plants. Data centers could account for 12% of the nation’s electricity consumption by 2028, according to United States Department of Energyabout a third of More than 4,000 data centers in the country Located in three states: Virginia, Texas, and California.
At least one study questions the connection between data centers and rising electricity prices. A recent study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that data centers may actually helped reduce Average retail electricity prices. experts Tell Utility companies can spread fixed infrastructure costs among more electricity customers.
In the letters, the lawmakers highlighted specific examples of tech companies publicly insisting they don’t want taxpayers to be burdened by data centers while also resisting state and local efforts to regulate them.
“Tech companies have pretended to be in support of covering the energy costs of their data centers, but their actions have shown the opposite,” the letters said.
Google, Amazon, CoreWeave and Equinix did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Digital Realty said in an emailed statement that it “looks forward to working with all elected officials to continue investing in the digital infrastructure needed to support America’s leadership in technology”. Meta and Microsoft declined to comment.
While the senators’ letters focus mostly on the financial burden of data centers, the heavy energy use of giant structures also comes with significant climate costs. A Cornell study The report published last month in Nature Sustainability found that data centers could annually consume as much water as 6m-10m Americans and emit as much carbon dioxide as 5m-10m cars.
There is growing opposition in the US to the environmental and financial costs associated with data centers. Local efforts across the country have blocked or delayed nearly $64 billion in data center projects, according to a report published earlier this year. data center watchDetails about these projects and their proposed construction are often hidden under the guise of trade secrets, which lawmakers say allows tech giants to operate in secrecy,
“The contracts between data centers and utility companies that underpin these arrangements are almost always confidential, leaving the public in the dark as to why their electricity bills are rising,” they wrote.
