Electricity prices have risen twice as fast as inflation, and utilities have already requested $29 billion in rate hikes this year alone. Rewiring America's analysis shows that upgrading US homes with solar, storage, and heat pumps could meet 100% of projected data center demand growth, faster and cheaper than building new power plants.

Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than five years ago in areas near data centers. That's being passed on to customers. More than 70% of markets with the biggest price jumps are within 50 miles of significant data center activity.

Data center project cancellations quadrupled from six in 2024 to 25 in 2025, with 21 terminating in the second half of the year alone. At least 188 organized opposition groups now operate in 40 states. Opposing politicians are 55% Republican, 45% Democrat, and the resistance is accelerating.

The AI buildout is outpacing public trust. Growing opposition is already driving permit blocks, shaping investment decisions, and constraining scale at a global level. According to the WEF, securing community buy-in has moved from a communications challenge to an infrastructure prerequisite. AI's next scaling phase will depend as much on public legitimacy as on energy, compute and capital.

In October 2025 alone, Michigan utilities announced deals for 6.4 gigawatts of data center power, equivalent to adding six or seven major cities to the grid in two to three years. Ohio has 185 data centers. Illinois has 224. This isn't a future trend: it's reshaping the Great Lakes right now.

Data center power demands are driving up energy bills for ordinary households. One in six US households is now behind on their utility bills, outstanding debt has nearly doubled to $25 billion since 2022, and shut-offs reached 3.5 million in 2024.

Nearly 2,300 gigawatts of clean energy capacity is waiting in line to connect to the US grid, roughly double the size of the entire existing generating fleet. The typical project now takes five years to complete the process. Distributed energy deployed behind the meter skips the queue entirely.

Time to power is the single biggest factor in where hyperscalers build. Data center builds take 18 to 24 months. Gas and renewables projects take 3 to 5 years. Transmission can take 7 to 10. Hyperscalers are turning to behind-the-meter power, generated on-site and outside the grid, to close the gap.
