Data Center Boom Sparks Battle Over Power Costs, New Regulations

California’s growing network of data centers is drawing increased scrutiny from lawmakers and local communities as concerns mount over rising electricity costs.

The state contains around 300 data centers which supports online banking, video conferencing, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, according to CBS News. This comes as California lawmakers consider bills to regulate data centers.

At the DataBank’s Irvine facility, equipment-filled rooms are kept at temperatures of about 60 degrees to prevent servers from overheating, the outlet reported.

“This is an uninterruptible power system,” said Tom Kordic, vice president of operations for DataBank’s West region told CBS News. “It’s essentially running off commercial power.”

The Democrat-dominated California legislature this year is mulling over several AI data center power regulation bills, per the outlet. One of these includes which is AB-222 Data Centers: power usage effectiveness: cost shifts.

This legislation was introduced by Democratic California State Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who represents a district based in Silicon Valley.

A spokesperson for Bauer-Kahan did not immediately respond to rhe Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

“This bill would require the Energy Commission to establish a process for the owner of a data center,” the legislative counsel’s digest of the bill reads. “As defined, to submit the power usage effectiveness ratio, as defined, for the data center to the Energy Commission on a biannual basis, and require the owner of a data center to submit this information for the data center in the manner and timeframe specified by the Energy Commission.”

Bauer-Kahan has argued the measure is designed to prevent ordinary Californians from subsidizing the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure.

“They won’t say it out loud because you can’t say we should be shifting these to ratepayers. It’s a ridiculous thing to say,” she told Politico.

California electricity prices rose by roughly 96%, nearly doubling, in the ten-year period between 2014 and 2024, per data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The state has been under a Democratic trifecta since 2011.

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