Issue Brief by Senior Policy Analyst, Tom Opdyke | topdyke@csg.org

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Data centers are the physical infrastructure that powers our virtual world. Almost everything done online today, from streaming movies to selling homemade goods online, passes through a data center. However, increasing internet utilization creates the need for an increased number of data centers. With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), the data center industry has continued has continued to grow rapidly – 782 percent since 2022.¹

This growth has led to increased demand for key resources, including energy and water. According to some estimates, generating a 100-word AI-produced email may use roughly one bottle’s worth of water (17.5 fluid ounces) and approximately 0.14 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity, depending on system design, location, and other variables.²

Southern states are at the center of this growth. The fifteen-state region accounts for 42 percent of all data centers in the country.³ Virginia leads both the region and the nation in the number of data centers, and Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas all rank among the top 25 states nationally in number of data centers.

As demand for data centers continues to grow and states work to adopt policies that accommodate demand while still recognizing resource and political limitations, policymakers need to understand what data centers are, what has contributed to their rising numbers, their projected growth in energy and water consumption, and what is being done across the South to ensure a stable and healthy relationship with this increasingly integral infrastructure.

Data Centers 101

What is a Data Center?

Before the rise of the facilities as they exist today, the term “data center” had a somewhat different meaning. In the 1950s and 1960s, computers were very large and not connected across a network. One computer typically took up an entire room and, while the computer and the room it was in would have technically been a data center, they were usually referred to as “mainframes.”⁴ The term “data center” as it is understood today emerged in the 1990s when several innovations occurred simultaneously: introduction of microprocessor production, which allowed for smaller computers; growth of the internet; and the client-server computing model, in which one or more computers function as a server to send information when users (clients) request it.⁵ Gone were the large mainframes, as servers replaced them. The rooms housing these servers came to be called “data centers.” However, these were usually in-house operations internal to a single organization.⁶

In the early 2000s, cloud computing emerged and enabled users to access resources over the internet without needing to build and maintain their own servers. Companies like Salesforce and Amazon began offering these services and, by 2012, 38 percent of organizations were using cloud-based services.⁷ These types of data centers – sometimes referred to as “cloud data centers” or “hyperscale data centers” – are often owned by major technology companies, such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.⁸ The first was built by Google in 2006 in Oregon.⁹ The largest such facility in the U.S. is now in Nevada and spans nearly 7.2 million square feet (the size of 125 football fields);¹⁰ however, the average size for a data center is around 100,000 square feet.¹¹

Activities that take place, “in the cloud,” from backing up photos and conducting search inquiries, to asking artificial intelligence a question and streaming movies, are all reliant on the capacity of these modern data centers. These facilities house digital storage systems connected to the internet and allow widespread access to the ever-growing amount of content available online.¹² For example, when a user of a subscription service selects a movie to watch on their home television or mobile device, the data file for that film is stored in a data center. When the user selects that movie, the information in that file is then sent from the data center to the user. This system also allows hundreds or thousands of others to watch the same movie simultaneously from their own respective homes or mobile devices.

What Led to the Recent Increase in Data Centers

In short, increased data consumption has driven demand for more data centers across the country. Between 2021 and 2023, internet usage in the U.S. increased by 13 million people.¹³ This increase has reshaped many aspects of American life, such as remote work and telehealth appointments. Studies indicate 80 percent of adults now consider high-quality home internet one of the most essential household amenities.¹⁴ High-speed home internet connections have been steadily increasing since 2000, rising by 4 percent between 2021 and 2023 alone.¹⁵

FIGURE 1. Percentage of U.S. Adults Who Say They Subscribe To Home Broadband

However, wired home internet connections are being outpaced by wireless home connections by nearly double¹⁶ – and this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to wireless data consumption. In 2023, Americans consumed 100.1 trillion megabytes of data via wireless devices, which is more wireless data than was used from 2010 to 2018 combined.¹⁷ The next year, that number jumped to 132.5 trillion megabytes, an increase of more than 30 percent.¹⁸ If this trend continues, wireless data consumption will double approximately every three years.

FIGURE 2. Wireless Data Consumption Increase in the U.S.

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There are multiple reasons for this increase in internet consumption. On the surface, individual users are accessing more content, but beneath that lie companies using cloud-based services to store that content. The content is also more complex than simple documents and photos. Entire websites and organizational archives across all sectors are connected to the internet. Cloud computing is essential for most business today.¹⁹

In addition to cloud computing, the other major factor driving data center demand is artificial intelligence (AI). Generative AI requires large amounts of data.²⁰ Even though an AI model may not produce a long, detailed answer to an inquiry, it still needs to acquire and interpret large amounts of data to produce that response.

With the emergence of increasingly complex content and AI models, and the continuing growth in the volume of data consumption, the need for data centers continues to rise. In 2014, data centers accounted for 5 percent of overall office construction spending; by 2024, that number had increased to 32 percent with the projection of growth to 40 percent of total office construction spending by 2028.²¹

FIGURE 3. AI Demand Compared to Data Center Growth

Across the South

As of November 2025, there are 4,149 data centers across the country.²² Of those, 1,742 – 42 percent of all data centers in the U.S. – are located in the fifteen Southern states.

As shown in Figure 4, Virginia and Texas are the two states with the largest concentration of data centers, both in the South and nationally. Georgia is the only other Southern state in the top ten, coming in seventh. Florida ranks eleventh, and North Carolina is thirteenth.²³ Growth in the demand and resulting number of data centers in the South is attributable to a multitude of factors, the most prominent of which are power availability and pricing, fiber optic cable infrastructure, proximity to customers, and incentives.²⁴

FIGURE 4. Data Centers in the South

Virginia, for example, has a long history of being a data hub. Since the early days of the internet, much of the world’s data has flowed through the state.²⁵ Early infrastructure development began in the 1960s to link the Department of Defense with nearby universities – the earliest iteration of what would become the internet.²⁶ In the 1990s, investments in high-speed fiber and a growing technology sector (the headquarter building for America Online was located in Northern Virginia at the time) meant additional demand and infrastructure growth.²⁷

This robust fiber network, coupled with affordable land, few natural disasters, and low-cost energy, made Virginia a desirable location for data centers. In addition, starting in 2009, Virginia was one of the first states to offer tax exemptions for data centers,²⁸ which included sales and use tax exemptions for data centers that met minimum investment criteria.²⁹

FIGURE 5. Major Data Centers in Virginia

Other Southern states, such as Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas, also have key factors that make them attractive to data centers, including fiber optic infrastructure and low power costs. Tax incentives have also played a particular role in these states. Georgia offers a sales tax exemption for data center investments of $25 million or more, depending on the location of the facility within the state.³⁰ North Carolina offers sales and use tax exemptions for equipment purchases, software, electricity, and certain types of property.³¹ Texas offers tax exemptions for a 10 to 15-year period on a host of data center-related property purchases, including computers, electrical equipment, cooling systems, power infrastructure, and software; facilities must invest $200 million over five years, have 100,000 square feet of gross building area, and create more than 20 new jobs.³²

Energy Usage

Across the country in 2023, data centers accounted for approximately 4 percent of all electricity demand. This amounted to 162 terawatt hours (TWh).³³ In 2024, that amount increased to 183 TWh.³⁴ To put this in perspective, that amount was more than Kentucky and Tennessee’s combined electricity consumption that same year.³⁵

As seen in Figure 4, some Southern states have seen more data center growth than others. However, most Southern states are still seeing the effects of data centers in their energy usage profiles. For example, in 2023, data centers in Missouri accounted for 1.2 percent of all energy usage, and in Virginia, the figure was 25.6 percent.³⁶ These percentages point to the increasing power demand that data centers can bring to a state, which will likely lead to a need for more energy production.

TABLE 1. Data Centers Power Demand as a Percentage of Total Demand in Southern States

State	% of Energy Demand
Alabama	1.7%
Arkansas	N/A
Florida	0.6%
Georgia	4.3%
Kentucky	2.2%
Louisiana	0.1%
Mississippi	N/A
Missouri	1.2%
North Carolina	1.9%
Oklahoma	1.8%
South Carolina	2.5%
Tennessee	1.3%
Texas	4.6%
Virginia	25.6%
West Virginia	N/A

To help put this in perspective, Georgia’s data centers used 4.3 percent of the state’s power demand in 2023. This would be equal to 62 percent of one year’s worth of potential power produced by the Vogtle 3 reactor, a new nuclear reactor that came online in the state the same year and has a capacity of 1110 MW.³⁷ That same amount of power – 62 percent of Vogtle 3 – is equivalent to the power used by more than half a million homes in one year.³⁸

Data centers’ power demand is not all related to IT equipment (i.e., servers, etc.). Approximately 40 percent of power demand is used by cooling systems that regulate the temperature inside a data center.³⁹

FIGURE 6. Data Center Power Usage

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In terms of future data center energy usage, estimates vary widely. On one end of the spectrum is the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)’s estimate of 230 TWh by 2030.⁴⁰ On the other, Boston Consulting Group has estimated energy usage could go as high as 1,050 TWh by 2030.⁴¹ These estimates, laid out in Figure 7, average out to approximately 450 TWh and the median figure among them is 375 TWh by 2030.

FIGURE 7. Estimated Future Power Usage by Data Centers Nationwide

Where Will the Power Come From?

Energy providers across the South, from Georgia⁴² to Missouri,⁴³ are pursuing a range of strategies to meet growing data center demand, with many incorporating natural gas, solar, and battery storage into their generation portfolios. Even as some move away from renewable energy sources like wind and pump-storage hydrogen, companies like Duke Energy in North Carolina decided to keep solar in their future generation portfolio.⁴⁴ In terms of reliability, natural gas plants can quickly handle peak loads, whereas solar and battery storage can provide a baseline of power.

As of 2024, based on current national-level estimates, natural gas and solar are also the cheapest production methods on a cost-per-megawatt basis over a 25-year period,⁴⁵ though this could change with natural gas price fluctuations.⁴⁶

Effects on Utility Rates

Building new facilities to increase energy production comes at a substantial financial cost, which is sometimes borne by customers in their power bills as utilities seek to recoup the cost of building more energy production facilities. As a result, many Southern states are grappling with how to increase energy production due to data center demand without overburdening residential customers with the costs. In many cases, a state’s public utilities commission, the agency tasked with regulating utilities, is at the center of this debate.

The Alabama Public Service Commission (PSC), for example, has not laid out a concrete approach for balancing increased production and costs, but PSC President Cynthia Lee Almond has said that data center costs will not be passed on to other customers.⁴⁷ In Georgia, the state PSC approved a rule in early 2025 to the same effect: data centers are required to contribute to power grid upgrades, rather than those costs being passed onto residential consumers.⁴⁸

In Kentucky, utilities can provide discounted rates to certain users – in this case, large data centers – but only if the utility already has excess generating capacity. In addition, these discounts can only last a maximum of five years. Kentucky’s approach falls under the state PSC’s rules on special contracts and were put in place 35 years ago when the PSC was looking at utility rates for the manufacturing industry.⁴⁹

In contrast to Kentucky, Mississippi passed legislation in 2024 that allows utilities and large-scale customers to negotiate outside traditional PSC review when deciding terms and pricing for electric service without consideration to how it will affect utility rates.⁵⁰ In Virginia, the State Corporation Commission (SCC) is considering a proposal for a new large-load customer class tariff for data centers. This would require data centers to cover more of the costs related to transmission upgrades and long-term power projects.⁵¹

In June 2025, Texas enacted a law that requires large-scale facilities (defined as consuming 75 MW or more) to pay for any interconnection and transmission study costs. Though not directly related to utility costs, the law also mandates remote disconnection equipment installation at such facilities so that grid operators can cut power during emergencies; this caused the law to be referred to as the “Kill Switch Bill.”⁵²

Water Usage

The construction and operation of data centers can use vast amounts of water, especially when considering water use in off-site power production and processor chip manufacturing.⁵³ On-site, data centers generally use water for cooling, which is essential for keeping the temperature inside a facility cool enough for the servers to operate without overheating. Note that water cooling isn’t the only method data centers can employ; air-cooling methods can be used as well.⁵⁴

In a basic water-cooling system, cooled water is sent through pipes surrounding IT equipment.⁵⁵ This can be a very water-intensive process, roughly equating to a 1 MW data center using 6.7 million gallons a year (an approximation as only about a third of data centers track their water usage).⁵⁶ Though these systems reuse water as part of their design, there is often still a net loss of water throughout different stages, such as evaporation when passed through cooling towers. The water data centers use typically comes from municipal or regional water utility companies and often uses potable water suitable for drinking, though some operators are transitioning to alternative sources.⁵⁷ In 2023, for example, data centers in Loudoun County, Virginia – one of the top hubs for data centers in the world – used approximately 900 million gallons of potable water.⁵⁸ In addition, approximately 40 percent of existing and planned data centers in the U.S. are in areas facing high levels of water stress.⁵⁹

However, data centers typically do not put the same pressure on water systems as they do electricity. For example, data centers in the Lone Star State are set to consume approximately 46 billion gallons of water in 2025,⁶⁰ but this only represents 0.7 percent of the state’s total water usage in 2025.⁶¹ Researchers at the Houston Advanced Research Center and the University of Houston note that this level of water use raises concerns and has prompted calls for policy frameworks to better manage data center water consumption.⁶²

The Virginia General Assembly has considered several bills with such frameworks. In 2025, the legislature passed two bills⁶³ – HB 1601 and SB 1449 – that would have required data centers to assess how they would affect local water resources. Governor Youngkin, however, vetoed both bills, asserting that the measures would infringe on local governments’ autonomy.⁶⁴

In November 2025, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) codified new rules governing the review of new data center projects during regional impact studies. These studies will now assess a potential data center’s impact on water consumption, as well as energy demands. Prior to this change, the Georgia DCA rules had remained unchanged since 2014. The rise of data centers meant that the statutory process will now consider the impact of such large-scale facilities, something that had not been a factor 10 years earlier.⁶⁵

For their part, data center developers are exploring ways to reduce water consumption or even replenish more than they use. Microsoft, for example, has committed to ensuring that its data centers replenish more water than they consume by 2030.⁶⁶ Amazon and Google have both made similar pledges.⁶⁷

Conclusion

The growth of data centers presents Southern states with both economic opportunities and resource management challenges. In terms of water, several major technology companies have committed to reducing their water usage, which may solve the issue of how to manage these facilities’ water demands. If not, states may soon begin considering policy frameworks requiring data centers to measure their water usage and potentially limit their consumption.

Cloud computing and AI are driving sustained demand for data centers, and the need for energy is following suit. Though it remains to be seen if the AI industry’s rise will continue to accelerate,⁶⁸ many industry experts are predicting that the data center industry will continue to grow. With that growth will come increased energy demand, perhaps by as much as 1,050 TWh by 2030.⁶⁹ As data center demand grows, states are increasingly examining how future power production models align with projected increases in electricity use. In addition, as utilities consider building more energy infrastructure due to data centers’ demands, state public utility commissions will continue to assess the appropriate balance between rates paid by these large-scale facilities and those paid by residential and other smaller-scale customers.

While recent federal actions related to artificial intelligence governance highlight the rapid evolution of AI technologies, decisions related to data center siting, energy production, and water management remain largely within state and regional policy domains.

End Notes

1. Brandon Michalsk, “Sizing the Surge: U.S. Data Center Construction Outlook to 2030,” MOCA Systems, Inc., September 2025, mocasystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MSIDataCenterReport_Final.pdf
2. Pranshu Verma and Shelly Tan, “A Bottle of Water Per Email: The Hidden Environmental Costs of Using AI Chatbots,” The Washington Post, September 18, 2024, washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/18/energy-ai-use-electricity-water-data-centers/
3. “USA Data Centers,” Data Center Map, accessed November 14, 2025, datacentermap.com/usa/
4. Stephanie Susnjara and Ian Smalley, “What is a Data Center?,” IBM, accessed November 17, 2025, ibm.com/think/topics/data-centers; “A Brief History of Data Centers,” Digital Reality, March 24, 2023, digitalrealty.com/resources/articles/a-brief-history-of-data-centers
5. Digital Reality, 2023.
6. Digital Reality, 2023.
7. Duke Robertson, “The History of Data Centers: An Exponential Evolution,” Enconnex, March 22, 2024, blog.enconnex.com/data-center-history-and-evolution
8. Susnjara and Smalley, 2025.
9. Susnjara and Smalley, 2025.
10. “15 Largest Data Centers in the World,” Brightlio, November 15, 2025, brightlio.com/largest-data-centers-in-the-world/; “Top 5 Largest Data Center in The World 2025,” gbc engineers, April 17, 2025, gbc-engineers.com/news/largest-data-center-in-the-world; “An Overview of the 5 Largest Data Centers in the World,” AMCO Enclosures, May 27, 2025, amcoenclosures.com/an-overview-of-the-5-largest-data-centers-in-the-world/
11. Kyle Mason, Robert Freudenberg, Christine Garner, and Dave Zackin, “The Rise of Data Centers in the Grid,” RPA, June 30, 2025, rpa.org/news/lab/the-rise-of-data-centers
12. “About the Data Center Industry” Data Center Coalition, accessed November 17, 2025, datacentercoalition.org/datacenter-industry
13. Rafi Goldberg, “New NTIA Data Show 13 Million More Internet Users in the U.S. in 2023 than 2021,” National Telecommunications and Information Administration, June 6, 2024, ntia.gov/blog/2024/new-ntia-data-show-13-million-more-internet-users-us-2023-2021
14. “Two Decades of Data Show Fiber Broadband Reshaping American Life,” Business Wire, October 29, 2025, businesswire.com/news/home/20251029394082/en/Two-Decades-of-Data-Show-Fiber-Broadband-Reshaping-American-Life
15. “Internet, Broadband Fact Sheet,” Pew Research Center, November 20, 2025, pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/internet-broadband/
16. “Speed, Simplicity, Savings: Percentage of Residential Wireless Internet Sign-Ups Doubles That of Wired, J.D. Power Finds,” J.D. Power, October 9, 2025, jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2025-us-residential-internet-service-provider-satisfaction-study
17. “U.S. Wireless Data Use Skyrockets, Passing 100T Megabyte Milestone, CTIA Annual Survey Finds,” CTIA, September 10, 2024, ctia.org/news/u-s-wireless-data-use-skyrockets-passing-100t-megabyte-milestone-ctia-annual-survey-finds
18. “2025 Annual Survey Highlights,” CTIA, September 8, 2025, ctia.org/news/2025-annual-survey-highlights
19. Sebastien Tillett, “Rising Demand Fuels Surge in US Data Centre Construction,” Oxford Economics, September 11, 2024, oxfordeconomics.com/resource/rising-demand-fuels-surge-in-us-data-centre-construction/
20. Bhargs Srivathsan et al, “AI Power: Expanding Data Center Capacity to Meet Growing Demand,” McKinsey & Company, October 29, 2024, mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/ai-power-expanding-data-center-capacity-to-meet-growing-demand
21. Tillett, 2024.
22. Data Center Map, 2025.
23. Data Center Map, 2025.
24. Shuting Pomerleau and Lily-Ann Smith, “AI Data Centers: Which Factors Determine Their Location?,” American Action Forum, August 7, 2025, americanactionforum.org/insight/ai-data-centers-which-factors-determine-their-location; “AI Boom Drives States to Offer Big Incentives for Data Center Development,” Associated Press, June 2, 2025, spotlightpa.org/news/2025/06/data-centers-ai-computing-state-incentives; Kayla Guo, “Data Centers Are Booming in Texas. What Does That Mean for the Grid?,” The Texas Tribune, January 24, 2025, texastribune.org/2025/01/24/texas-data-center-boom-grid
25. David Kidd, “The Data Center Capital of the World Is in Virginia,” Governing, July 27, 2023, governing.com/infrastructure/the-data-center-capital-of-the-world-is-in-virginia; Jim Zografos, “Data Center Alley: How Ashburn Became a Data Center Hub of the World,” Digital Reality, January 7, 2025, digitalrealty.com/resources/articles/northern-virginia-ashburn-data-centers
26. Kidd, 2023.
27. Kidd, 2023.
28. Ibid.
29. “Data Center Retail Sales & Use Tax Exemption,” Virginia Economic Development Partnership, accessed November 26, 2025, vedp.org/incentive/data-center-retail-sales-use-tax-exemption
30. O.C.G.A. § 48-8-3, law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-48/chapter-8/article-1/part-1/section-48-8-3/
31. “Data Centers Sales & Use Tax Exemptions,” North Carolina Department of Commerce, accessed December 5, 2025, commerce.nc.gov/grants-incentives/tax-other-cost-savings#DataCentersSalesUseTaxExemptions-299
32. “State Sales Tax Exemption for Qualified Data Centers,” Texas Comptroller, accessed December 5, 2025, comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/data-centers/
33. “Powering Data Centers: U.S. Energy System and Emissions Impacts of Growing Loads,” Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), October 30, 2024, epri.com/research/products/000000003002031198
34. Rebecca Leppert, “What We Know About Energy Use at U.S. Data Centers Amid the AI Boom,” Pew Research Center, October 24, 2025, pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/10/24/what-we-know-about-energy-use-at-us-data-centers-amid-the-ai-boom
35. “Tennessee Electricity Profile 2024,” U.S. Energy Information Administration, November 10, 2025, eia.gov/electricity/state/tennessee/; “Kentucky Electricity Profile 2024,” U.S. Energy Information Administration, November 10, 2025, eia.gov/electricity/state/kentucky/
36. “Powering Intelligence: Analyzing Artificial Intelligence and Data Center Energy Consumption,” Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), May 28, 2024, epri.com/research/products/000000003002028905
37. “Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Units 1 Through 4,” Southern Nuclear, accessed October 29, 2025, southernnuclear.com/content/dam/southern-nuclear/pdfs/our-plants-/plant-vogtle/vogtle-media_guide.pdf
38. “How Much Electricity Does an American Home Use?,” U.S. Energy Information Agency, accessed November 14, 2025, eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3; “How Much Electricity Does a Power Plant Generate?,” U.S. Energy Information Agency, accessed November 14, 2025, eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=104&t=3
39. Martin Offutt and Ling Zhu, “Data Centers and Their Energy Consumption: Frequently Asked Questions,” Congressional Research Service, August 26, 2025, congress.gov/crs-product/R48646
40. EPRI, October 2024.
41. Vivian Lee, “U.S. Data Center Power Outlook: Balancing Competing Power Consumption Needs,” Boston Consulting Group, June 28, 2024, linkedin.com/pulse/us-data-center-power-outlook-balancing-competing-consumption-lee-iz4pe/?trackingId=HUdUv0sARxW55L9exZtfTA%3D%3D
42. Drew Kann, “Georgia Power’s Massive Data Center Expansion Includes a Lot of Gas,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 1, 2025, ajc.com/business/2025/08/georgia-powers-massive-data-center-expansion-includes-a-lot-of-gas/
43. Kate Grumke, “Ameren Plans Largest Solar Facility Yet Next to Callaway Nuclear Plant, In Part for Data Centers,” St. Louis Public Radio, September 4, 2025, stlpr.org/health-science-environment/2025-09-04/expected-data-centers-ameren-largest-solar-facility-callaway-nuclear-plant
44. Elizabeth Ouzts, “Duke Energy Backs Off Renewables After North Carolina Cuts Climate Goal,” Canary Media, October 2, 2025, canarymedia.com/articles/utilities/duke-energy-backtracks-renewables-north-carolina
45. “Capital Cost and Performance Characteristics for Utility-Scale Electric Power Generating Technologies,” U.S. Energy Information Administration, January 2024, eia.gov/analysis/studies/powerplants/capitalcost/pdf/capital_cost_AEO2025.pdf
46. Mike Soraghan, “Trump’s Push For More LNG Exports Risks Domestic Price Surge,” Politico, April 14, 2025, eenews.net/articles/trumps-push-for-more-lng-exports-risks-domestic-price-surge/
47. Dennis Pillion and Lee Hedgepeth, “How Alabama Power Kept Bills Up and Opposition Out to Become One of the Most Powerful Utilities in the Country,” Inside Climate News, November 3, 2025, insideclimatenews.org/news/03112025/alabama-power-electric-rates-profits/; Stacey Svendsen, “Data Centers Reshaping Alabama’s Energy Landscape: Signals from the November PSC Meeting,” Southern Renewable Energy Association, November 18, 2025, southernrenewable.org/news-updates/data-centers-reshaping-alabamas-energy-landscape-signals-from-the-november-psc-meeting
48. “PSC Approves Rule to Allow New Power Usage Terms for Data Centers,” Georgia Public Service Commission, January 23, 2025, psc.ga.gov/site/assets/files/8617/media_advisory_data_centers_rule_1-23-2025.pdf; Taylor Beis, “Powering the Future: How States Are Responding to Data Center Energy Demands,” Stateside, September 18, 2025, stateside.com/blog/data-center-energy-demands
49. Pam Radtke, “Power for Data Centers Could Come At ‘Staggering’ Cost to Consumers,” Floodlight, March 5, 2025, floodlightnews.org/power-for-data-centers-could-come-at-staggering-cost-to-consumers/; Eliza Martin and Ari Peskoe, “Extracting Profits from the Public: How Utility Ratepayers Are Paying for Big Tech’s Power,” Harvard Law School, March 2025, eelp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Harvard-ELI-Extracting-Profits-from-the-Public.pdf
50. MS Code § 77-3-271, law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-77/chapter-3/article-4/section-77-3-271/
51. “Petition of Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative for Approval to Implement a New Large Power Service Rate Schedule, and Request for Expedited Consideration of Request for Interim Rate Effectiveness,“ Commonwealth of Virginia State Corporation Commission, September 5, 2025, scc.virginia.gov/docketsearch/DOCS/87%25201!.PDF
52. TX Util § 35.004, statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/UT/htm/UT.35.htm#35; TX Util § 37.0561, statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/UT/htm/UT.37.htm#37.0561; “Policy Whiplash: Why Data Centers Must Take Control of Their Power Now,” Unison Energy, September 22, 2025, unisonenergy.com/resources/blog/policy-whiplash-why-data-centers-must-take-control-of-their-power-now/
53. Pengfei Li, Jianyi Yang, Mohammad Islam, and Shaolei Ren, “Making AI Less ‘Thirsty’: Uncovering and Addressing the Secret Water Footprint of AI Models,” arXiv, April 6, 2023, arxiv.org/abs/2304.03271
54. Kyle Chien, “A Guide to Data Center Cooling: Future Innovations for Sustainability,” Digital Reality, March 7, 2025, digitalrealty.com/resources/articles/future-of-data-center-cooling
55. “Data Center Water Cooling,” Sunbird DCIM, accessed November 19, 2025, sunbirddcim.com/glossary/data-center-water-cooling
56. “The Evolution of Data Center Cooling: From Water to Emerging Technologies,” Power Magazine, October 22, 2025, powermag.com/the-evolution-of-data-center-cooling-from-water-to-emerging-technologies/
57. Dashveenjit Kaur, “Cloud’s hidden cost: Data centre Water Consumption Creates a Global Crisis,” CloudTech, July 15, 2025, cloudcomputing-news.net/news/data-centre-water-consumption-crisis/
58. Nate Benforado, Julie Bolthouse, Kyle Hart, and Victoria Higgins, “Responsible Data Center Development,” Virginia Conservation Network, 2025, vcnva.org/agenda-item/responsible-data-center-development/
59. Pranav Hotkar, “Data Centers and Water Scarcity: The Thirsty Cost of Digital Growth,” DC Pulse, July 10, 2025, dcpulse.com/article/data-centers-water-scarcity-digital-growth
60. David Martin Davies, “Big Tech’s Big Thirst — AI’s Demand for Texas Water,” Texas Public Radio, August 15, 2025, tpr.org/environment/2025-08-15/big-techs-big-thirst-ais-demand-for-texas-water
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