If you’re anything like Building Local Power’s host, Danny Caine, you’ve seen your electric bill creep up and are wondering: are data centers to blame for this? Danny sets out to answer this and other burning questions about the murky way in which Big Tech’s data center arms race, public utilities, and electric bills intersect. Bringing his unanswered questions to energy experts, his neighbors, and his trusty dad, Danny aims to discover exactly how utilities make money from data center development, and if there’s any hope for our electric bills.

Guest voices + context:

Kevin Caine: Dad of Building Local Power host, Danny Caine, and resident of Cleveland, Ohio

John Farrell: Co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and director of the Energy Democracy Initiative

Cathy Kunkel: Energy consultant at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)

Elena Schlossberg: Executive director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County

Andrew Chow: TIME technology correspondent who has extensively covered AI and data centers at the intersection of race over the past few years.

Resources:

Data Center Watch Briefing

Ohio's electric bills are high — and so are utility CEO salaries

The Policies Communities Need to Confront the AI Data Center Race

North Star Data Center Policy Toolkit: State and Local Policy Interventions to Stop Rampant AI Data Center Expansion - AI Now Institute

The People Say No: Resisting Data Centers in the South - MediaJustice

Proposed Prince William data center prompts protest letter to Jeff Bezos - The Washington Post

Outcry grows over proposed Prince William data center - The Washington Post

Some residents of the Boxtown neighborhood in Memphis, Tennessee, didn’t know Elon Musk was building a huge data center nearby until they saw city and Chamber of Commerce officials hyping the deal. A historic Black neighborhood founded by freedmen after the Civil War, Boxtown is one recent example of an old pattern: corporations siting polluting, noisy facilities in Black or poor neighborhoods, which the corporations see as less likely to mount a resistance to their plans. We chronicle this history, finding useful context in the decades-long fight against trash incinerators. We also learn what Memphis is doing to fight back, from citizen journalism to liberation science.

Guest voices + context:

Dr. Sacoby Wilson: Director of The Health, Environmental, and Economic Justice Lab, and Professor in Global, Environmental and Occupational Health. Focuses on environmental health science, including water quality analysis and air pollution studies, and works closely with community-based organizations, such as those in Memphis. Collaborated with Representative Justin Pearson on work to advocate for Black Communities in the fight against data centers and environmental racism.

Andrew Chow: TIME technology correspondent who has extensively covered AI and data centers at the intersection of race over the past few years.

Jennifer Kunze: Maryland Organizing Director at Clean Water Action, who took Danny on a tour of the Baltimore Incinerator.

Brenda Platt: Director of ILSR’s Composting for Community Initiative

Amber Sherman: Local policy organizer in Memphis

Learn More:

Data Center Watch Briefing

Inside Memphis' Battle Against Elon Musk’s xAI Data Center -Andrew Chow, Time

How the AI Boom Sparked a Housing Crisis in One Texas City -Andrew Chow, Time

From Neighborhood Streets to City Hall with Zac Blanchard - Building Local Power

Memphis Community Against Pollution

We Went to the Town Elon Musk Is Poisoning - More Perfect Union

When a notice appeared in a local newspaper about a company applying for an air quality permit for a power plant, it set off alarm bells in the small West Virginia town of Davis. After residents realized that a major data center project, enabled by West Virginia’s hastily passed state preemption bill, was being pushed through without anyone knowing about it, the community took action. A coalition of artists, outdoor enthusiasts, and generations-deep mining families formed Tucker United, and we met with them to learn about the state of the fight: why Davis, West Virginia; is the proposed reduction in state income tax and influx of data center revenue actually going to reach the local community; and how do they make sure their voice is heard by local and state government and that corporations are held accountable to them in the face of a politics that is pushing an “abundance” agenda of development with few guardrails?

In this episode, we hear from:

• Linda Bilsens Brolis: Associate Director for Education for the Composting for Community Initiative, who first told us about this story, and lives in Davis.
• Nikki Forrester: Helped launch Tucker United, now serves as the Director of Communications and spokesperson, lives in Tucker County, West Virginia, and is a journalist.
• Mayor Alan Tomson: Mayor of Davis, West Virginia, who was alerted about the project and helped organize the initial town hall meeting that led to Tucker United. He shares what inspired him to move from his life as a career Army Officer in D.C. to Davis.
• Cris Parque: lead organizer of Tucker United
• Shaena Crossland: member of Tucker United