Washington, D.C. – A new fact sheet from Food & Water Watch demonstrates how data centers’ claims of willingness to supply their own power through “behind-the-meter” generation is largely a shell game that will leave communities exposed to significant costs and harmful impacts from these huge profit-driven facilities. Supplying electricity from off the grid may allow data centers to avoid initial costs and delays associated with tapping already stressed power grids, yet the public will still face increasing air and water pollution, strains on local water resources, and inflated bills from higher natural gas and electricity prices caused by unfettered data center development.

Meanwhile, the so-called “Ratepayer Protection Act,” which is currently garnering bipartisan support in Congress, would only encourage this behind-the-meter energy supply for data centers, ostensibly requiring state regulators to consider making data centers pay for the incremental cost of generation, transmission and distribution to serve their enormous energy needs. Yet neither the Ratepayer Protection Act nor the “bring your own power” concept will address the affordability crisis that massive energy demands from data centers are foisting on the rate-paying public.

“No clever industry terminology or bill titles will change the fact that voracious power consumption by these hyperscale data centers will have alarming impacts on the cost of electricity for nearby communities. ‘Behind-the-meter’ and ‘off-grid’ power are deceiving terms meant to distract policymakers from the unavoidable realities of limited energy supply, ballooning AI energy demand, and the inevitable utility cost crisis for everyday families and small businesses,” said Food & Water Watch Senior Researcher Oakley Shelton-Thomas.