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00:02Three Democratic U.S. senators said Tuesday they are investigating whether large technology
00:07companies are passing rising electricity costs from data centers onto consumers,
00:11according to The Guardian. Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Richard Blumenthal sent
00:16letters to Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and several data center operators seeking
00:21transparency on energy use, cost sharing, and incentives. The senators said regions
00:26with heavy data center activity have seen electricity price increases of up to 267 percent
00:32over five years, while the average U.S. household electricity bill rose 7 percent year over year
00:38as of September. They said rising utility prices force American families to cover data center
00:43electricity costs and called on tech companies to pay a greater share of current and future energy
00:48expenses. They asked for details on current and planned data centers, energy consumption,
00:53tax incentives, lobbying activity, and steps taken to prevent costs from shifting to households.
00:59For all things money, visit Benzinga.com.
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