Tag: on-site generation

Communities are skeptical of data centers.  They don’t know if they like the underlying technology, they certainly are not feeling the increase in power costs they attribute to this massive build, and they don’t feel like they need to provide tax assistance to the richest companies in the world. The companies needing to build are organizing fast through procurement standards, model legislation, financing structures, and political infrastructure to make sure their interests are represented at every level where decisions get made. Advocates need to help communities benefit from this moment, not be a reflexive “no” and convince communities they have nothing to gain.  It isn’t true and it won’t help the people climate, environmental, and community organizing groups claim to represent.  Communities that organize with equal seriousness, around what they want from this buildout rather than around whether they want it at all, will end the decade with infrastructure their grandchildren still benefit from.  That infrastructure can be clean, affordable, and reliable. Communities that spend the leverage on saying no will get what they always have: whatever is left over after capital sets the terms.  Developers that try to undercut productive efforts to build that kind of resilience in communities will end up losing.  Both sides need to realize that the relationship can be productive and valuable.

It is not often – read “never” – that a CEO’s decision NOT to attend a conference is a global headline but so it was this weekend when Amin Nasser, the veteran CEO of Saudi Aramco, withdrew from CERAWeek in order to attend to matters closer to home. Mr. Nasser’s withdrawal underlines that the focus for all of us still heading to Houston will be on the Straits of Hormuz and its short, medium and long term consequences on gasoline prices. And all the while, the focus on high gasoline prices at CERA this week is likely to obscure the other energy price shock lurking in the shadows which is the inexorable rise of electricity prices across the United States. Unlike gasoline prices, once retail electricity prices rise, they almost never go down.