By Michi Trota
Bill Gates recently made headlines by suggesting that climate change is no longer a priority, but the American public begs to differ.
In this last election, climate change was a defining issue in states like Virginia and Georgia, where voters grappled with rising energy costs. And no matter how much tech billionaires try to distract us, increasing power costs and our worsening climate are directly connected to corporations like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon racing to dominate the AI landscape.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the price of energy has risen at more than twice the rate of inflation since 2020, and Big Tech’s push for more power-hungry data centers is only making it worse.
The data centers proliferating across the country drive up energy costs by powering energy-ravenous generative AI, cloud storage, digital networks, and other energy intensive programs — much of it fueled by coal and natural gas that exacerbate climate change.
In some cases, data centers consume enough electricity to power the equivalent of a small city. The wholesale price of electricity in areas housing data centers is up a whopping 267 percent from five years ago — and everyday customers are eating those costs.
Americans are also shouldering increasing costs of an extreme climate.
The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard noted that insurance prices rose 74 percent between 2008 and 2024 — and between 2018 and 2023, nearly 2 million people had their policies canceled by insurers because of climate risks.
Meanwhile, home prices have gone up 40 percent in the past two decades — meaning the cost of home repair and recovery from climate disasters has also grown, all while wages remain stagnant.
Data centers aren’t just putting our wallets at risk. Power grids across the country are already strained from aging infrastructure and repeated battering during extreme weather events.
The additional pressure to feed energy-intensive data centers only heightens the risk of power blackouts in emergencies like wildfires, deep freezes, and hurricanes. And in some communities, people’s taps have literally run dry because data centers used all the local groundwater.
Worse still, Big Tech’s AI energy demand has triggered a resurgence in dirty energy with the construction of new gas-powered energy plants and delayed shutdowns of fossil fuel-powered plants. The tech industry is even pushing for a revitalization of nuclear energy, including the planned 2028 reopening of Three Mile Island — site of the worst nuclear power plant disaster in U.S. history — to help power Microsoft’s data centers.
Everyday people bear the costs of Big Tech’s hunger for profits. We pay it in rising energy bills, our worsening climate, our lack of access to safe water, increased noise pollution, and risks to our health and safety.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Instead of raising our bills, draining our local resources, and destabilizing our climate, Big Tech could create more energy jobs, lessen our power bills, and sustain communities.
We can demand that tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Amazon uphold their commitments to use 100 percent renewable energy and not rely on fossil fuels and nuclear energy to power data centers. We can insist that data centers only go where they’re wanted by ensuring communities are given full transparency and protection in how they’re affected by power usage, water access, and noise pollution.
The current administration is ignoring its obligations to the American public by refusing to rein in Big Tech. But tech billionaires still have a responsibility to the very public they depend on for their existence.
Michi Trota is the Executive Editor at Green America.
Bo Peep says
We agree on this one. Taxpayers should not be picking up the yab for added power consumption. We ate already getting stung for water and trash now we are going to get it for power too.
Endless dark money says
Hilarious and sad that people would vote to pay exceedingly more and ever increasing rates so a few corporations can make more money that often pay little to no tax at all. End the republican terrorism! Put people over profits!
Deborah Coffey says
“Everyday people bear the costs of Big Tech’s hunger for profits. We pay it in rising energy bills, our worsening climate, our lack of access to safe water, increased noise pollution, and risks to our health and safety.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Instead of raising our bills, draining our local resources, and destabilizing our climate, Big Tech could create more energy jobs, lessen our power bills, and sustain communities.”
Exactly right. And, the billionaires can afford to pay for all of these things. Or else, we can just put them out of business. People have power. Let’s use it.
Atwp says
Greed is a blinding demon. Never enough, never satisfied, don’t have time to enjoy. Will try to make bigger profits at any cost. Ignoring the needs of the people, greed decrease service and raise service rates. The definition of corporate America.
Laurel says
Look at all that impervious area, with stormwater runoff. Something this area does not need more of. Use that big roof for solar power. Figure out how to get off the grid, and off our backs. Find ways to recirculate the water for cooling. These big tech boys should be able to solve these problems without passing them onto us, but they literally stood behind Trump, and it’s easier, and cheaper, to put it on us, and he’s backing them.
DeSantisRocks says
This article leans heavily on alarmism rather than realism. Climate concerns are often treated as unquestionable dogma, even as prominent figures who once championed them, including Bill Gates, acknowledge the complexity and tradeoffs involved. Data centers are not some fringe experiment. They are core infrastructure for modern economies, supporting everything from healthcare and finance to research and national security. If we want growth, jobs, and technological competitiveness, we cannot pretend this infrastructure is optional or inherently harmful.
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Gates unloaded a blistering critique of what he called “the doomsday view of climate change,” which he said is simply “wrong.” While acknowledging the serious risks for the poorest countries, Gates insisted that humanity will continue to “live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.” He added that “using more energy is a good thing, because it’s so closely correlated with economic growth.”
Sherry says
@desantis. . . . What you’ve written here is complete garbage! Cherry Picked just a few words, OUT OF CONTEXT, to fit your warped extreme right winged agenda.
Everyone should read the “entire” article:
https://www.gatesnotes.com/home/home-page-topic/reader/three-tough-truths-about-climate
DeSantisRocks says
Funny how “cherry picking” only becomes a concern when someone cites conclusions you disagree with. Quoting Gates’ own words is not taking him out of context, it is acknowledging that even he rejects apocalyptic, doomsday framing. Yes, the climate changes. Yes, human activity likely contributes. That does not mean society is on the brink of collapse, nor does it mean energy use and economic growth are inherently bad. On a global scale, there is very little wealthy local governments can do to materially alter climate outcomes anyway. What they can do, quite effectively, is raise costs, slow growth, and block the infrastructure modern life depends on.