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Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Sunday, July 13, 2025

U.S. power companies have applied for permission to raise electricity prices by billions of dollars, driven by the costs of replacing aging infrastructure and powering data centers for artificial intelligence, according to a new report issued this week by energy affordability advocacy group PowerLines. Utilities across the U.S. have requested or received approval to increase rates for this year's H1 by $29B, more than double the cumulative amount of rate increases requested and approved at this point last year, the PowerLines report said. U.S. customers of National Grid (NYSE:NGG), for example, who are located primarily in New York and Massachusetts, are expected to see their monthly bills increase by up to $50/month as the utility received approval to increase its rates by $708M, according to calculations by the Financial Times.

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"What we're ... seeing is a deer-in-headlights dynamic," PowerLines executive director Charles Hua told FT. "A lot of states don't have a playbook for how they can meet rising demand while balancing affordability and utility bills."

The requested rate increases are also coming as coal and natural gas plants are being retired, with not enough replacement sources being built.

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"A lot of states don't have a playbook for how they can meet rising demand while balancing affordability and utility bills."

States should have thought of that when they opened their legs... I mean, accepted FDRs money to roll out electricity to the countryside.

The Rural Electrification Act of 1936 (REA), enacted on May 20, 1936, provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to serve isolated rural areas of the United States.
en.m.wikipedia.org

"Only The Weak Will Fail!"
Offer Valid In All Fifty States Through Jan 20, 2029.

#1 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-07-13 03:31 PM | Reply

So...basically these companies put shareholder profit over everything else, including basic maintenance and predictable updates, and we have to pay for it.

We're also having to pay for increased demand because idiots pushing AI won't be forced to pay for the power demands they need to push their garbage.

More privatization of profit and socialization of the losses.

#2 | Posted by jpw at 2025-07-13 03:34 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

Thanks, Trumpers!

Americans will long remember your contribution to our demise.

#3 | Posted by Corky at 2025-07-13 03:55 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

I recall someone on here saying that Lewzer's policies were bringing the cost of energy down. Is this part of that? Odd approach.

#4 | Posted by REDIAL at 2025-07-13 07:27 PM | Reply

Developer Urges Trump Not to Kill $11 Billion Power Line
financialpost.com

... Invenergy, a closely-held power developer, is calling on the Trump Administration to affirm its commitment to a $11 billion power line in the US Midwest after a US Senator from Missouri said he's secured a pledge from federal officials to halt the project.
Article content

The Grain Belt line would carry electricity generated by wind farms and other energy sources in Kansas across Missouri and Illinois to Indiana. The project is capable of delivering four nuclear power plants' worth of electricity and would be the highest capacity and second longest line in US history, according to the company.

"The Grain Belt Express transmission line is a critical energy security project, supported by a broad, multi-state coalition of stakeholders," Invenergy Chief Commercial Officer Jim Shield wrote in a letter Friday to Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright. "It will strengthen grid reliability and resilience while saving US consumers billion of dollars," said the letter obtained by Bloomberg News ...


#5 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-14 05:25 AM | Reply

LAMP

Ut oh . . a faux pas!

The Grain Belt line is doomed.

No one should EVER tell Trump that ANYTHING will save the U.S consumers billions of dollars.

That's completely antithetical to Trump's future dictatorship agenda.

#6 | Posted by Twinpac at 2025-07-14 05:54 AM | Reply

Glad to be alive, but as an old guy, I am also kinda glad I won't be around in twenty or thirty years, when it comes crashing down, amidst human caused global warming that will kill many poor people. We could have done a lot, but as it is, we are now lost to hate and fear and to living in a world where the rich get it all, and live maybe 15 years longer than we fellow humans at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

#7 | Posted by Hughmass at 2025-07-14 07:14 AM | Reply

HUGH

That accepted as a foregone conclusion with which I concur . . although I would like to stick around long enough to see Trump implode and the whole world erupt into a giant street party . . . with fireworks and the joyous sound of ringing bells everywhere.

#8 | Posted by Twinpac at 2025-07-14 08:10 AM | Reply

And headlines that scream "OH HAPPY DAY"

#9 | Posted by Twinpac at 2025-07-14 08:14 AM | Reply

Good thing we are lowering taxes for the wealthy and increasing military and paramilitary spending, right, MAGA?

#10 | Posted by e1g1 at 2025-07-14 09:39 AM | Reply

Good thing we are lowering taxes for the wealthy and increasing military and paramilitary spending, right, MAGA?

#10 | Posted by e1g1 at 2025-07-14 09:39 AM | Reply | Flag:
(Choose)

Actually glad that taxes for everyone won't rise over 20%, which would have happened if the bill wasn't signed. Seems the only ones that are complaining are those that don't pay taxes or those that are simply clueless.

#11 | Posted by fishpaw at 2025-07-14 11:01 AM | Reply

Infrastructure that has taken decades to get to where it is at now, all while being ignore by politicians for decades...and yet we STILL have clueless people trying to make it a partisan issue based on who sits in the POTUS seat on whichever day the article comes out.

"Thanks, Trumpers!
Americans will long remember your contribution to our demise."

Want to know the true reason why we have so many problems. This is it. This is the biggest reason by FAR. There are a lot of other reasons but this, voters who can't get over their own bias, is the biggest problem. These kinds of people aren't holding everyone accountable for what they do wrong, they are only holding those with a different opinion than them accountable while ignoring the masses of people who are culpable over decades of time. Especially a topic that comes up almost every...single...year...regardless of which party is in office.

It is mind-boggling how myopic someone's mind has to be to actually allow themselves to be herded by puppet masters. Absolutely mind boggling. And this can't be argued because no intelligent person who isn't having their strings pulled would ever allow themselves to be so easily manipulated.

#12 | Posted by humtake at 2025-07-14 11:31 AM | Reply

" glad that taxes for everyone won't rise over 20%, which would have happened if the bill wasn't signed"

Well, that's a bald-faced lie.

What "news" outlet is feeding you this crap?

#13 | Posted by Danforth at 2025-07-14 12:00 PM | Reply

For years we were to "conserve energy", now that's all out the window.

Between AI data centers and bitcoin mining, I would guess energy usage has almost doubled.

So the consumer has to again sponsor the well healed.

#14 | Posted by bat4255 at 2025-07-14 07:29 PM | Reply

"There are a lot of other reasons but this, voters who can't get over their own bias, is the biggest problem."

Like voters who believe global warming isn't a real problem, but trans athletes is?

#15 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-07-14 07:32 PM | Reply

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