Voter anger over the cost of living is hurtling forward into next year’s midterm elections, when pivotal contests will be decided by communities that are home to fast-rising electric bills or fights over who’s footing the bill to power Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers.
Electricity costs were a key issue in this week’s elections for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, a data center hotspot, and in Georgia, where Democrats ousted two Republican incumbents for seats on the state’s utility regulatory commission.
And electricity prices permeate thru a whole lot of other prices as oil does. So this is inflationary. How much, I don’t know.
Volume of electricity used is very correlated to gdp. Price depends on what specific electricity generation technology is switched on to meet the extra demand. That can get very pricey (see Texas for examples).