The Data Centers Are Coming: Ep. 4 - Transmission (Im)possible

About this episode

Danny Caine explores the impact of data centers on electric bills and public utilities.

If you’re anything like Building Local Power’s host, Danny Caine, you’ve seen your electric bill creep up and are wondering: are data centers to blame for this? Danny sets out to answer this and other burning questions about the murky way in which Big Tech’s data center arms race, public utilities, and electric bills intersect. Bringing his unanswered questions to energy experts, his neighbors, and his trusty dad, Danny aims to discover exactly how utilities make money from data center development, and if there’s any hope for our electric bills. Guest voices + context: Kevin Caine: Dad of Building Local Power host, Danny Caine, and resident of Cleveland, Ohio John Farrell : Co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and director of the Energy Democracy Initiative Cathy Kunkel: Energy consultant at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) Elena Schlossberg: Executive director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County Andrew Chow : TIME technology correspondent who has extensively covered AI and data centers at the intersection of race over the past few years. Resources: Data Center Watch Briefing Ohio's electric bills are high — and so…

People in this episode

Host: Danny Caine

Guests: Kevin Caine, John Farrell, Cathy Kunkel, Elena Schlossberg, Andrew Chow

Topics covered

• data centers
• electric bills
• Big Tech
• public utilities
• energy policy

Keywords

• data centers
• electric bills
• Big Tech
• public utilities
• energy experts
• AI
• Cleveland

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, Coalition to Protect Prince William County, TIME

Places: Cleveland, Ohio

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• The Data Centers Are Coming: Ep. 5 - A Better Way · June 11, 2026 · 47 min
• The Data Centers Are Coming: Ep. 3 - Contamination Without Representation · May 14, 2026 · 39 min
• The Data Centers Are Coming: Ep. 2 - They Underestimated Us · April 30, 2026 · 40 min
• The Data Centers Are Coming: Ep. 1 - Planting a Flag · April 30, 2026 · 41 min
• Introducing "The Data Centers Are Coming" · April 16, 2026 · 3 min
• Internet as a Human Right: Christopher Mitchell on Community Networks · August 21, 2025 · 26 min