The Coin: Should America keep building data centers at this pace?

In a rural Louisiana parish, teachers received year-end checks of up to $50,935. In Northern Virginia, noise complaints are now among the most persistent issues residents bring to county officials. Both stories come from the same thing: data centers being built to power artificial intelligence.

This week, we lay out the strongest case on each side, then address the question on everyone’s mind: Who pays for the power?

A data center is a warehouse full of computers. The new ones built for AI are bigger than anything before them, and they need enormous, constant amounts of electricity.

The money is huge. In Jan 2025, OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank announced Stargate at the White House, a planned $500 billion AI infrastructure venture. This year, Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta are expected to spend about $700 billion on AI buildout, according to analyst tallies that range from about $690-$745 billion.

Single projects now rival whole state budgets. Meta's campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana, started as a $10 billion project in Dec 2024. In July, Meta raised it to $50 billion. For context, that’s nearly the size of Louisiana's entire $53.4 billion state budget for this year.

Supporters, from tech companies to governors of both parties, make five main arguments.

Closer to home: Richland Parish, Louisiana. School employees in Richland Parish get an annual check funded by local sales tax collections. When Meta's construction boom hit, those collections soared. On June 10, the school board sent "13th checks" worth up to $50,935 for certified staff with four or more years of experience, up from $10,200 the year before. Classified staff received up to $17,472, up from $3,323.

The caveat inside this case. Construction sales taxes fade when the cranes leave. Meta also receives a 100% state sales tax exemption on equipment and materials, and stands to benefit from an 80% local property tax break. Neither the state nor the parish has estimated what those exemptions cost (WWNO, July 14).

Residents near proposed and existing sites, local officials, and consumer advocates are pushing back.

Closer to home: Northern Virginia. Loudoun County sits at the heart of "Data Center Alley." The county's own website says data center noise complaints "are among the most persistent issues brought forward to Loudoun County officials and frequently pertain to tonal noise," the low hum residents describe. It also admits a gap:

New standards are in the works, but the county expects the zoning changes in spring or summer 2027.

The caveat inside this case. Not every fear has shown up in the data. JLARC found 83% of Virginia data centers used the same amount of water as, or less than, an average large office building in 2023. Water use depends heavily on how a facility is cooled.

Skepticism crosses party lines. In a Pew Research Center survey of 10,548 adults (July 20 to Aug 9), 60% said they would be uncomfortable with a new data center near them, including 68% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans. Half said data centers are mostly bad for home energy costs, up from 38% in January.

For most households, this is the question that matters most, and the answer depends on where you live.

How it works. Much of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest runs on PJM, the grid operator for 13 states and DC. PJM holds auctions to pay power plants to be ready for future demand. When data centers add demand, those auction prices rise, and utilities pass the cost to every customer.

The case that data centers are raising bills. PJM's independent market monitor estimates that data center demand added $29.4 billion to the cost of PJM's last four capacity auctions. In the most recent auction alone, it tied about $6.3 billion of $16.4 billion in charges, roughly 38%, to data center demand.

The case that they are not, yet. The Institute for Energy Research, an industry-aligned think tank, found "no statistically significant relationship between data center concentration and faster increases in electricity rates" across states (March 19). In a follow-up brief (April 17), it reported that in 2025 the 10 states with the most data centers averaged 14.46 cents per kWh, versus 14.39 cents everywhere else. IER acknowledges that could change, but says the most recent data does not show data centers driving up rates.

What just happened. On Oct 9, federal regulators at FERC accepted PJM's new definition of a "large load" (50 megawatts or more at one site) but rejected most of PJM's plan for handling data center demand, saying parts of it reached into retail rates, which states control.

Bottom line. The rules that decide who pays for new power plants and power lines are being written right now, mostly state by state. That makes it all the more important to share your views with your state utility commission and local officials.

Federal action so far has been about speed and promises. Congress has not passed a binding rule on who pays.

Why the ratepayer bill died. Supporters said the idea was simple. Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), who led the push in the Senate: "The company that is creating enormous new demands for electricity should pay the costs required to serve them." Democrats said it didn't go far enough. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it "toothless" and said "Senate Democrats want to make it mandatory for data centers to cover their own costs."

Support and skepticism both cross party lines.

Would you want a data center in your county? Are you experiencing any effects (good or bad) of a data center already in your area? Send us an email, we’d love to hear your thoughts! We read every response, and the best ones may appear in a future issue.

Thanks for reading. See you in two weeks ✌️

The Quarterly Constituent

The build case

The neighbors' case

Power bills

Washington and the states