‘You’re letting inept politicians off the hook’: WA Policy Center expert says data centers aren’t driving up energy costs

Communities across Washington have imposed moratoriums on data centers, citing concerns about rising energy costs, but a Washington Policy Center (WPC) researcher told KIRO Newsradio the data tells the opposite story.

Donald Kimball, communications manager and tech exchange editor at WPC, joined “The John Curley Show” and said areas with high concentrations of data centers have actually seen energy prices rise at a slower rate than the rest of the state and country.

“If you look at Grant County, that’s the area that has the highest concentration of data centers in Washington,” Kimball said. “Energy prices are going up, but they’re going up across the country and across Washington. And you look at the rate of increases, and the rate in both Grant County and in areas like Virginia is about 20% v. 30% everywhere else.”

Kimball said the reason is counterintuitive but simply stated: when data centers come online, they absorb a larger share of a power plant’s existing capacity, spreading fixed costs across more kilowatt hours sold and easing the burden on homeowners.

“Now residential customers are actually buying a smaller percent share of that fixed cost,” Kimball said.

KIRO host John Curley pointed to Loudoun County, Virginia, where data center tax revenue has been used to cut residential property taxes and fund new schools and hospitals, and argued that towns imposing moratoriums are leaving money on the table.

Kimball warns data center moratoriums hand the AI race to China

Kimball compared data center bans to the United States’ handling of 5G, which he said the country lost after treating the technology as a security risk while China treated it as a commodity.

“Now all of these cell towers, particularly in Europe and in Africa, are owned by China. They’re made by Huawei, and the United States basically completely lost the 5G war,” Kimball said. “AI really is that next battleground.”

Kimball wrote in a recent Spokesman-Review column that data centers are an easy target for frustration over energy bills, but the real cost drivers in Washington are state regulations such as the Clean Energy Transformation Act and the Climate Commitment Act.

“When you blame data centers, even if it’s a worry, I totally understand it. You’re really letting these inept politicians with these pie-in-the-sky policies that don’t work; you’re letting them off the hook,” Kimball said.

Kimball said he believes the current moment represents peak demand for large, centralized data centers and that cities should act while developers are still willing to pay premium rates and front the costs of electrical grid upgrades.

“While there is this demand, local cities should absolutely be taking advantage of where these developers have the profit and ability to upgrade the electricity grids, pay those taxes, build up their local communities,” Kimball said. “I think that’s a big opportunity.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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