Don’t Let Them Blame Data Centers for Their Green Energy Failure
When a wildfire erupts, the left has an explanation ready before the first fire truck arrives: climate change.
In 2025, before the cause of the Palisades Fire was established, Governor Gavin Newsom was already whining about a “changing climate.” Turns out the Palisades Fire was arson. Climate change gets blamed for a lot of things, but it can’t strike the match.
Now America’s electric bills are on the rise, and the left has found another boogeyman: data centers.
Just as an arsonist needs an alibi, a failed politician needs a villain.
Three Socialists, One Talking Point
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says data centers are inflating electric bills and wants a national construction moratorium. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says data centers will drive up electricity costs and wants a moratorium. Kathy Hochul says data centers threaten to hike utility bills and has pushed a New York moratorium.
Same talking points. Same proposed “solution.”
There is just one problem: electric bills were rising long before the current data-center boom.
The left wants Americans to believe electricity suddenly became expensive because computers showed up. They hope nobody asks what happened to the power plants that once kept electricity reliable and affordable.
More Than 83 Gigawatts Gone
According to the Energy Information Administration’s generator records, America retired approximately 83.2 gigawatts of fossil-fuel generating capacity between January 2019 and June 2026. That’s enough generating capacity to supply roughly 70 million average homes.
Eco-leftists celebrated this as an “energy transition.” Utilities were pressured to close plants. Green groups demanded more shutdowns. Politicians promised wind, solar, and batteries would take their place.
Now demand is growing, the grid is tight, and the same people are acting shocked that electricity costs more.
You don’t get to celebrate the closure of reliable power plants and then blame the customers who need electricity.
Meet The Renewable Portfolio Standard
One of the biggest political weapons behind this transition has been the Renewable Portfolio Standard, or RPS. These mandates require utilities to obtain an increasing share of their electricity from government-approved wind and solar sources.
That isn’t the free market. It is a government-ordered transition.
Today, 27 states and the District of Columbia have mandatory renewable or clean-energy standards. When their residential electricity prices are compared with those of states without such mandates, the difference is difficult to ignore.
From 2019 through 2024, the average residential electricity price in RPS states increased 28.4 percent. In states without them, it increased 16.8 percent.
The numbers demolish the claim that data centers suddenly caused a problem that was already years in the making.
The Biggest Increases
The largest residential rate increases among mandate jurisdictions between 2019 and 2024 were:
- California: 66.9 percent
- D.C.: 36.4 percent
- New York: 36.2 percent
Then there are the ten states with America’s highest residential electricity prices in 2024: Hawaii, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Alaska, New York, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Nine of those ten have mandatory renewable or clean-energy standards.
That is the record AOC, Sanders and Hochul hope Americans never compare.
More Demand Does Not Automatically Mean Higher Rates
One study found that states experiencing the strongest electricity demand growth from 2019 through 2025 saw their inflation-adjusted average electricity prices decline by more than 1 cent per kilowatt-hour. The presence of data centers did not change that conclusion.
The real problem is not demand. It is demand colliding with government-created scarcity.
To be clear, data centers need new power, and they should pay for it.
That is exactly the idea behind President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge. Participating technology companies are expected to build, bring or purchase the electricity they need, pay for grid upgrades and honor their power contracts whether they use all the electricity or not.
For those keeping score, that’s two very different visions:
President Trump’s answer is more power and to protect ratepayers. The socialist answer is to stop economic growth because their energy policies cannot support it.
Same Playbook, New Villain
The marching orders are not hard to spot.
AOC wants a moratorium. Bernie wants a moratorium. Hochul wants a moratorium.
They are all singing from the same socialist sheet of music: blame data centers, ignore the retired power plants and never mention the renewable mandates that helped make electricity more expensive.
They broke the system. Now they want to blame the customer.
Meanwhile, China is building power plants, expanding its grid and competing to dominate artificial intelligence. If American politicians make it harder to build the infrastructure of the intelligence age here, Beijing will gladly take the investment, jobs and strategic advantage.
China couldn’t be happier that AOC, Sanders, and Hochul are leading the charge.
Larry Behrens is an energy expert and the Communications Director for Power The Future. He is also author of the book “Power Restored: President Trump’s First Year and the Revival of American Energy Leadership.” You can follow him on X/Twitter @larrybehrens.