Data centers will power the next century, but the grid isn’t ready. The quest for capacity is reorganizing political alliances and showing up in rate hikes.

On Capitol Hill this week, five Democratic senators accused the Trump administration of “sweetheart deals with Big Tech” that have “driven up power bills for ordinary Americans.”

Their letter, addressed to the White House, faulted the administration for allowing data-center operators to consume “massive new volumes of electricity without sufficient safeguards for consumers or the climate.”

But the senators’ complaint points to a deeper reality neither party can ignore: artificial intelligence is changing America’s energy economy faster than policy can adapt. Every conversation with ChatGPT, every AI-generated image, every search query now runs through vast new physical infrastructure — data centers — that consume more electricity than some nations.

The world’s appetite for digital intelligence is colliding with its appetite for cheap, reliable power.

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