Energy and Climate

Sen John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the Strengthening Infrastructure, Readiness, and Emergency Notifications Act, which would allow Texas and other states to repurpose unused Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program funding to go toward strengthening natural disaster response and mitigation infrastructure, including through investments in severe weather warning siren systems or rapid notification and disaster sensor technologies. The SIREN Act would:

Apparently, the Trump administration wants some of the world’s largest technology companies to publicly commit to a new compact governing the rapid expansion of AI data centers. A draft of the compact lays out commitments designed to ensure energy-hungry data centers do not raise household electricity prices, strain water supplies, or undermine grid reliability, and that the companies driving demand also carry the cost of building new infrastructure. The proposed pact, which is not final and could be subject to change, is framed as a voluntary agreement between President Donald Trump and ma

The tech industry is facing fierce local backlash to data center projects around the country. But a new poll suggests national opinion is still up for grabs.

Sara Nichols is a longtime rural advocate who has helped Western North Carolinians access broadband for most of the past decade. In 2023, she testified before the House Subcommittee on Communication and Technology on the future of rural broadband funding. In 2025, she was named the Tech Difference Maker of the Year by the NC Tech Association and also served as a 2025 Rural Summit broadband funding panelist.

In a bid to tamp down growing unrest in communities over tech giants’ expansion of power-hungry data centers, President Donald Trump said his administration would push Silicon Valley companies to ensure their massive computer farms do not drive up people’s electricity bills, seizing on a promise Microsoft made public to be a better neighbor. The Trump administration has gone all in on artificial intelligence, pushing aside concerns within the MAGA movement and seeking to 

Reliable broadband statewide enables tangible improvements in every one of Maine’s government functions & development goals. Here are some in action:

2025 was another costly year of natural disasters in the U.S.—from the LA wildfires to the Texas floods. The first half of the year alone was the most costly on record, totaling over $101 billion. Beyond damage in dollars, communities were upended, and livelihoods disrupted, exposing the need for stronger disaster preparedness and resiliency.

The demise of the coal industry left much of Appalachia in economic tatters, with lost jobs, spoiled water, and depopulated communities across the coalfields of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia. Now, in an ironic twist of the region’s energy history, tech companies and data center developers are eyeing these same rural landscapes with ambitious plans to power the Artificial Intelligence revolution. From the hollows of Tucker County (WV) to the former strip mines of Wise County (VA), proposals for massive data center complexes are sparking both hope and fierce resistance.

Tech companies and developers looking to plunge billions of dollars into ever-bigger data centers to power artificial intelligence and cloud computing are increasingly losing fights in communities where people don’t want to live next to them, or even near them. Communities across the United States are reading about—and learning from—each other’s battles against data center proposals that are fast multiplying in number and size to meet steep demand as developers branch out in search of faster connections to power sources.

The annual electricity consumption in the U.S. hit a record high in 2024 and is expected to keep rising. It’s driven in part by the growing demands for artificial intelligence data centers. As a result, communities and small businesses are paying more in their electricity bills.