Energy companies spent $212 billion on new plants this year. But just to feed data centers. Adopting LEDs and efficient appliances was pointless.

Photo above – cast members of the CGI generated Netflix show “Resident Alien” try to figure out why there’s always snow on the street winter and summer, but their breath never makes vapor in the cold air. “This-is-some-bullshit” agrees alien Harry Vanderspiegle (in human guise), on the right.

Money spent on new US electric plants is skyrocketing. Up $40 billion over the prior year alone. Up 130% over the past decade. I’m going to turn my thermostat to 75 and switch off the night lights at home to see if that helps. No, it didn’t . . . my meter is still spinning like crazy. The government says electricity inflation is “normal”. I guess normal means rising 5% a year. My bill is up 25% since 2021.

No, I don’t have an electric water heater, and I don't take insanely long hot showers. I don’t have an EV or plug in hybrid. My cooktop is electric induction – they don’t get any more efficient than that. I’d blame my neighbors with EVs and $7,500 tax credits, but they’re not the problem.

The problem is “data centers”. Giant buildings filled with computers. The largest in the USA is in Nevada. 8 million square feet. Bigger than the pentagon. But there are hundreds more. These data centers are training AI how to surf the net to violate copyrights for literature, paintings, and photos. So that we can get pink slips saying we’ve been replaced by ChatGPT, Gemini, or Llama. So “quants” can use AI to flash trade stocks in milliseconds, and make the idea of long-term investment in a 401K pointless.

People will just have to sit home and binge on Netflix. Which has 3,657 original shows, mostly rendered by CGI and Artificial Intelligence. If you doubt this, just pay closer attention to your favorite shows. The wind doesn’t blow outdoors, and there’s no vapor when actors speak on a winter's day.

This is why America is doubling its electrical demand, and my bill is going through the roof.

I'd send an email to my congressperson to complain. Except the CoPilot logo pops up at the top of MS Word, and wants to write it for me, before I even hit the first key. And when I press the send button, I’m pretty sure I’m going to get an AI generated response from my congressman’s office.

Can we just cut out the middleman, and replace all the politicians with ChatGPT? If everything is going to be done with AI, government officials are the most irrelevant thing in America.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

US energy groups spend record sums on power plants to feed data centres

joe438 · 61-69, M

The energy efficient options merely help you use less power to save money. If you didn’t use them, your bill would be higher. The per-unit cost of power is indeed climbing at a rapid rate and it’s just going to get worse. Hopefully done if the relaxing of energy procurement rules will help slow that increase.

I didn’t know the numbers of data center usage. If those are accurate, it raises the question of why we need so much more computing power and storage. But we all pay for it even though we pay a bit less because of the LEDs

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@joe438 thats not why it became federal law. no regulation from DC was ever implemented to "save taxpayers money".

elimination of incandescent bulbs, arc lights, resistance coil stoves, resistance coil home heating, etc was PURELY intended to relieve demand on an overburdened grid.