Over the past few months, Americans have looked aghast at their rising electricity bills — in New Jersey, for example, prices have risen 19 percent just in the last year — and found one clear scapegoat: data centers. As these energy-sucking operations proliferate, the thinking goes, they require more and more electricity, pushing prices up for everyone from big companies to small households.

The argument has become a political flash point. In Virginia, the Democratic candidate for governor, Abigail Spanberger, has said she will push data centers “to pay their own way and their fair share.” Last week, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) wrote on X: “These data centers are massive electricity hogs. … Somebody has to pay for it all — and don’t believe any politician who says it won’t ultimately be

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