I keep hearing how everyone’s electric bills are going up with AI data centers near them. Why aren’t the companies paying the bill? Or is it building the infrastructure to accommodate them the issue?

  • spongebue@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Still nothing terribly new here. Energy has always had inelastic demand, meaning usage doesn’t change much with price. Whether gas costs 1, 3, or 5 dollars people still need to get to work and will still buy stuff. Maybe people will start to combine trips or whatever with higher prices, but nothing huge.

    • obsoleteacct@lemmy.zip
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      5 hours ago

      Exactly, so there’s never a reason to bring down the price. If anything you’d bring down the supply (e.g. Enron during the California energy crisis).

      • spongebue@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        I mean… Gas prices are relatively low right now, at least here in 'Merica. I’ve seen them more than double what they are now, how did that happen?