“Who you gonna’ believe? Me or your lying eyes.” Substitute Entergy’s spokesperson for Chico
Marx, and you have the current gaslighting telling you don’t believe what you see happening in
other states and what common sense tells you will happen here. Just trust Entergy not to raise
electric rates for small customers to benefit Amazon’s data centers.And don’t worry that Senate Bill 2001 sidelines Mississippi’s Public Service Commission (PSC)
and runs interference for Entergy. Mississippi’s politicians and economic developers who
passed SB 2001 say economic development is more important than affordable, reliable
electricity.
SB 2001 makes Mississippi more vulnerable to monopoly utility abuses than other states —
which are waking up to data center effects. The Washington Post’s recent “Data Center
Backlash” highlighted these effects: “ Data center projects dramatically increase load, costs, and
planning complexity for utilities especially electric and water systems if not paired with new
capacity, demand management, and clear cost-allocation rules.”
SB 2001 gives Entergy clear exceptions to capacity demand management and cost-allocation
rules for spending (investments) related to Amazon’s data centers. And the more Entergy
spends for Amazon’s plants, transmission lines, substations, etc., the more it makes
(guaranteed 10%+ return). And since the plants, transmission lines, substations, etc. for
Amazon also serve small customers, Entergy says it’s only fair that they pay for part of the
spending.
And not to worry that the spending is padded to expedite service for Amazon, and is not subject
to competitive bidding, and that rate increases for small customers are unlimited (SB 2001
removed a 4% annual cap on rate increases).
The WP says this about cost shifting retail rates. “In states with dense clusters of facilities,
residential electricity rates have risen notably as infrastructure costs are socialized across all
customers.” “ If data center demand is over-forecast or projects are cancelled after utilities
invest, other ratepayers can be left paying for underused plants and wires that were justified
primarily by expected data center growth.”
Entergy’s Chico says not to worry. There are no dense clusters of facilities in Mississippi. True,
but what happens when other opportunists take advantage of future sweetheart political deals
— justified in the name of economic development? Also remember Amazon’s load is large
relative to Entergy’s residential demand, which is only about a third of utilities’ residential
demand in other states with clusters of facilities. So it doesn’t take a cluster here to distort
Entergy’s residential rates. Amazon is big enough by itself. Especially with SB 2001 carve-outs
that favor Amazon and Entergy at the expense of residential customers.
There’s another residential rate increase lurking due to Amazon that flows straight to small
customers. The WP says: “Higher wholesale and capacity prices. Large, round-the-clock data
centers’ loads increase demand, which can push up wholesale energy and capacity prices that
flow through to customers’ bills.” Entergy buys imported electricity from the grid to meet system
demand when it can’t generate enough electricity. Data centers increase the cost of this
electricity and demand for it. This high-cost electricity flows directly to residential customers’
bills. Amazon makes it more likely that Entergy will import high-cost electricity for residential
customers.
There’s more to this data centers backlash story. It may be too late to save Entergy’s small
customers from higher rates due to Entergy and Amazon’s sweetheart deal. But it’s not too late
to help them understand that their rates are going up to benefit Amazon and Entergy because of
legislators who say economic development will help Entergy’s poor customers (who already
spend more of their income on energy than customers in any other state) have better lives.
Maybe in theory. But as Yogi said: “In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.”
This post was authored by Bigger Pie Forum Chairman Kelly Williams. This post is a paid advertisement.
12 comments:
Yep. It's a race to the bottom.
No matter what we do, China is going to steal the tech and provide it cheaper. They have worked hard using their Forex surplus to corner every market possible on the planet.
BYD is outselling Tesla. They have a competitor for StarLink that is half the price. Name anything of value that you want and China has the market on lock.
Meanwhile, the boomers literally sold us out to China for decades. Sold their childrens’ and grandchildrens’ future for what?
It must be a real problem.'
""I never want Americans to pay higher electricity bills because of data centers," Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday. "Therefore, my Administration is working with major American technology companies to secure their commitment to the American people, and we will have much to announce in the coming weeks."" https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-reveals-plan-tackle-energy-bills-millions-11349266
Oh but don't worry! All the right people will get rich! Why else was there over two thousand new contractor licenses issued in one year (2022-23) when the average yearly amount is 300- 350. Oddly the SOS announced the addresses to 'businesses' may not be accurate due to 'fraudulent' business filings.
A sudden explosion of new, fraudulent businesses when all the 'deals' worked out and the population exploded with illegal, cheap labor. How strange.
People who have never held a hammer passed an open book test. It's almost just as convenient as Somalian child care.
How do we know it’s bad? Because they built everywhere else except Mississippi first, and everywhere else has told them no more. Now all they have left is southern shithole states to pull the “billions” wool over their stupid eyes. And our politicians are stupid and/or corrupt enough to buy in. To hell with the people.
Democrats and RINOs sold you out. Decades of Chinese financed budget busting deficit spending.
Any given business enterprise has the responsibility to cover their own business costs. I noticed Musk's xAI bought building space and a nearby power generating plant, hopefully to generate his own power needs.
It would be much cheaper if everyone just pitched into a pot to hire 100 people at whatever their data center salary would be and lets just have them pickup trash along the road. Then we wouldn't have to worry about the data centers using up our water as well.
Everyone doubling down and investing tax dollars on the AI bubble. What happens to all these facilities when it bursts?
2:07. Good point, but most data center jobs are very tech/engineering specific roles that are imported from out of state. So, our unemployment numbers should remain static.
No benefit.
Thanks, Tate.
Tater Tot just took another dump on low middle- & low-class people. Their electric bill is going to also harm the old people on fixed income. When this electricity debacle hits Tata Tot will have a nice lobbyist job in Washington DC.
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