Record-breaking fuel prices triggered by the Iran war and global refinery outages have dominated the discourse leading up to the November midterm elections, but skyrocketing utility bill and the data center boom are squarely on the ballot too—and could tip the balance of power in many states and in Congress.
Prior to the beginning of the Iran war, electricity and natural gas utility bills led the nation in inflation and helped trigger the AI and data center backlash, even though data centers are only partly responsible for rising utility bills in some parts of the country. But the uproar hasn’t dissipated—despite fuel prices winning more headlines of late—and many positions from public utility commissioners to U.S. senators to governors hang in the balance, said Charles Hua, executive director of the PowerLines nonprofit, which seeks to modernize the utility regulatory system.
