Tech companies are racing to build data centers that draw as much power as a small city, and they want you to pay for the wiring. When one comes to town, the utility has to build new power plants, transmission lines, and substations, and unless your state says otherwise, that bill gets spread across every household’s rates while the company that caused it negotiates a special deal. Some of these facilities also pull millions of gallons of water a day from the same reservoirs and aquifers that families and farms depend on. The richest companies in the world don’t need a subsidy from your electric bill. Make data centers pay the full cost of the grid and water they use, through the public utility commission and in law, so the companies building them cover the bill instead of families.
Rent eats more of every paycheck every year, and in much of the country a landlord can still raise it by any amount, pile on junk fees, or end your lease for no reason at all. Families are pushed out of their neighborhoods, kids change schools mid-year, and tenants who ask for a repair learn not to ask again. Most renters walk into eviction court alone while the landlord brings a lawyer. None of this is a law of nature. It’s a choice your state makes in its housing code. Pass a renters’ bill of rights: limits on how fast rent can rise, an end to no-cause evictions and hidden fees, protection from retaliation, and a right to counsel in eviction court.
You can’t shop around for electricity. A monopoly power company sets your rates, a state commission is supposed to hold it in check, and the company is allowed a set profit on every dollar it pours into new plants and power lines, so the incentive is always to build more, charge more, and pass the bill to you. Too often customers end up paying for projects that failed, for the utility’s lobbying and political spending, and for rate hikes regulators wave through. Families are choosing between the power bill and groceries while shareholders collect. Rein in monopoly utilities: ban charging customers for lobbying and political spending, cut the profits regulators hand them, and require refunds when regulators find overcharges.
Tech companies are racing to build data centers that draw as much power as a small city, and they want you to pay for the wiring. When one comes to town, the utility has to build new power plants, transmission lines, and substations, and unless your state says otherwise, that bill gets spread across every household’s rates while the company that caused it negotiates a special deal. Some of these facilities also pull millions of gallons of water a day from the same reservoirs and aquifers that families and farms depend on. The richest companies in the world don’t need a subsidy from your electric bill. Make data centers pay the full cost of the grid and water they use, through the public utility commission and in law, so the companies building them cover the bill instead of families.
Rent eats more of every paycheck every year, and in much of the country a landlord can still raise it by any amount, pile on junk fees, or end your lease for no reason at all. Families are pushed out of their neighborhoods, kids change schools mid-year, and tenants who ask for a repair learn not to ask again. Most renters walk into eviction court alone while the landlord brings a lawyer. None of this is a law of nature. It’s a choice your state makes in its housing code. Pass a renters’ bill of rights: limits on how fast rent can rise, an end to no-cause evictions and hidden fees, protection from retaliation, and a right to counsel in eviction court.
You can’t shop around for electricity. A monopoly power company sets your rates, a state commission is supposed to hold it in check, and the company is allowed a set profit on every dollar it pours into new plants and power lines, so the incentive is always to build more, charge more, and pass the bill to you. Too often customers end up paying for projects that failed, for the utility’s lobbying and political spending, and for rate hikes regulators wave through. Families are choosing between the power bill and groceries while shareholders collect. Rein in monopoly utilities: ban charging customers for lobbying and political spending, cut the profits regulators hand them, and require refunds when regulators find overcharges.
