MAGA's Mace wants to make power bills great again, calls for datacenter moratorium

"“South Carolina is not Big Tech's personal power grid,” Mace said in a statement published on Monday in her capacity as a congressional representative. “These companies are planting massive data centers across our state, driving up energy demand, and leaving families and small businesses to pick up the tab. South Carolinians are already stretched thin. The last thing they need is a higher electricity bill subsidizing Big Tech's bottom line.”"

"Mace said a one-year pause on new projects would give the state an opportunity to implement rules ensuring any future projects include protections that wouldn't cause residents to pay more for electricity. She also said she does not want eminent domain seizures of private property on the table either, pointing to an ongoing matter in South Carolina's neighboring state, Georgia."

"Mace's concerns over datacenters leading to higher energy costs aren't an unrealized fear, either. As we reported last week, wholesale power costs in the largest US energy market, the PJM Interconnection, rose by 75 percent over the past year due to datacenter growth. South Carolina isn't part of the PJM, but if it's a hot destination for datacenter projects, one could assume similar pains might be felt there if more datacenter operators co"

A gubernatorial candidate in South Carolina called for a one-year pause on new datacenter projects. The proposal targets rising energy demand from large data centers and aims to prevent residents and small businesses from paying higher electricity bills that subsidize corporate profits. The candidate said the state should use the pause to create rules requiring protections for future projects so electricity costs do not increase for local families. The candidate also opposed the use of eminent domain to seize private property, citing a related issue in neighboring Georgia. Concerns are supported by rising wholesale power costs in the PJM Interconnection, which increased sharply due to datacenter growth.

Read at theregister