内容来源：https://www.theverge.com/news/846696/electricity-cost-ai-data-center-democrat-investigation

内容总结：

美国民主党参议员近日对科技巨头与数据中心运营商展开调查，质疑其激增的电力消耗正推高居民电费账单。伊丽莎白·沃伦等三位参议员已联合致函谷歌、微软、亚马逊、Meta及多家数据中心开发商，要求其在明年1月12日前详细说明用电规模、扩张计划及对地方能源政策的影响。

随着生成式人工智能爆发式增长，全美数据中心用电需求急剧攀升。目前数据中心已消耗全国超4%的电力，美国能源部预测这一比例到2028年可能升至12%。议员们在信中指出，为满足数据中心需求而新建的发电厂和输电线路，其成本最终通过电费转嫁给普通家庭，"美国家庭正在为万亿市值的科技公司支付电费"。

尽管今年全美居民电费平均上涨13%存在多重因素，包括电网老化改造和极端天气影响，但数据中心的用电需求已成为新的争议焦点。例如Meta在路易斯安那州建设最大数据中心时，直接催生了三座新建天然气电厂。

科技公司与电力企业的秘密协议加剧了监管难度。许多数据中心开发商不仅未公开租户信息，更通过与地方政府签订保密协议限制用电细节披露。亚马逊发言人虽辩称其全额支付电费并引用研究报告称数据中心为电力公司创造净收入，但劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室的研究也指出，用电需求激增带来的电价分摊效应可能更利好大型商业用户。

随着电力需求结束十余年平稳期进入快速增长通道，这场关于谁该为能源基础设施埋单的争论，正从经济议题演变为关乎民生公平的社会命题。

中文翻译：

本周二，马萨诸塞州民主党参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦、马里兰州民主党参议员克里斯·范霍伦及康涅狄格州民主党参议员理查德·布卢门撒尔联合致信谷歌、微软、亚马逊、Meta及多家大型数据中心开发商，要求调查这些企业对美国居民公共事业账单的影响。

民主党立法者正调查数据中心对电费的影响

参议员要求科技公司与数据中心开发商就其用电情况作出说明。此举正值美国电价上涨日益成为敏感议题之际——美国的数据中心数量远超全球任何国家，已引发多轮地方性抗议活动。在电力需求历经十余年平稳期后突然激增，主要归因于支撑生成式人工智能热潮的新建数据中心。立法者指出，为满足数据中心需求而兴建发电厂与输电线路的公共事业公司，最终将成本转嫁给了消费者。

"美国家庭为万亿级科技巨头支付电费"

信中写道："通过公共事业费率的上涨，美国家庭实质上承担了万亿市值科技公司的用电成本。数据中心的能源消耗不应以牺牲美国家庭的能源可及性与可负担性为代价。"今年以来全美家庭电费平均上涨13%，其背后成因复杂：大部分成本源于电网线路、变压器等老化基础设施的升级需求，极端天气频发更使问题恶化。

与此同时，数据中心、本土制造业、建筑电气化及交通电动化正持续推高用电需求。公共事业公司日益频繁地提出服务于数据中心的新基建项目，例如Meta迄今最大数据中心的建设就推动了路易斯安那州三座新建天然气发电厂的落地。

目前数据中心占全美用电量的4%以上，美国能源部预计到2028年这一比例将升至12%。人工智能技术导致数据中心需消耗更多电力完成复杂任务。即使人工智能泡沫破裂，其他费率支付者仍可能被迫承担在此期间动工的新能源项目成本。

居民用户将承担多少负担难以厘清，部分原因在于科技巨头与公共事业公司达成秘密协议，并让地方官员签署限制信息公开的保密协议。许多情况下，数据中心开发商甚至不披露租户身份。

为揭开迷雾，三位参议员要求相关企业在明年1月12日前回应信中的详细质询，问题涵盖数据中心耗电量、企业扩张计划及地方监管游说行动等。收信方包括谷歌、微软、亚马逊、Meta以及数据中心开发商CoreWeave、Digital Realty和Equinix。

微软与Meta拒绝向The Verge作出正式回应，谷歌及三家数据中心开发商未立即回应问询。亚马逊发言人丽莎·莱万多夫斯基在邮件中表示："亚马逊自行承担电费成本——我们要求任何持相反说法者出示数据。"她援引亚马逊资助的研究报告称，其数据中心为公共事业公司创造的收入超过服务这些设施的成本。

莱万多夫斯基还引用劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室去年12月的研究报告，指出用电需求增长可通过扩大用户基数摊薄成本，反而可能降低平均零售电价。但该研究同时强调，这种趋势往往使大型非居民用户受益。研究人员基于2019-2024年数据提出，若用电需求持续激增，此模式能否延续尚不明确。

英文来源：

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) fired off a letter on Tuesday to Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and several major data center developers to investigate the impact they’re having on Americans’ utility bills.
Democratic lawmakers are investigating data centers’ impact on electricity costs
Senators are demanding answers from tech companies and data center developers about their electricity use.
Senators are demanding answers from tech companies and data center developers about their electricity use.
The move comes as rising electricity rates became an increasingly hot-button issue in the US, which has far more data centers than any other country in the world and has seen waves of local opposition to these facilities as a result. Power demand is suddenly increasing after more than a decade without much change, due in large part to new data centers that underpin the generative AI boom. Utilities wind up shifting costs to consumers as they build out new power plants and transmission lines to meet data center demand, the lawmakers contend.
“American families bankroll the electricity costs of trillion-dollar tech companies”
“Through these utility price increases, American families bankroll the electricity costs of trillion-dollar tech companies,” the letter says. “Data centers’ energy use should not come at the expense of energy availability and affordability for American families.”
Household electricity bills have risen 13 percent nationally this year. There are complex factors behind that problem. Much of the costs stem from the need to upgrade aging infrastructure including power lines and transformers, a problem made worse by increasingly extreme weather.
Then there’s the growing electricity demand from data centers, domestic manufacturing, and the electrification of more building stock and transportation. Utilities are increasingly proposing new infrastructure projects to serve data centers. The construction of Meta’s largest data center to date has spurred the development of three new gas plants in Louisiana, for example.
Data centers account for more than 4 percent of the nation’s electricity use, a figure that the US Department of Energy expects to reach up to 12 percent by 2028. AI increases the amount of power data centers need to complete more complex tasks. And even if the AI bubble pops, other ratepayers could be stuck with the bill for new energy projects that break ground in the meantime.
It’s difficult to suss out how much of the burden residential consumers will shoulder, in part because powerful tech companies have brokered deals with utilities behind closed doors and asked local officials to sign NDAs that limit how much information is made public. In many instances, data center developers don’t even disclose who their tenants will be.
To try to lift the veil, the three senators have asked companies to respond to a long list of questions in their letter by January 12th of next year. The topics range from data centers’ electricity consumption and companies’ plans for expansion to their lobbying efforts when it comes to local regulation. The senators sent the letter to Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, as well as data center developers CoreWeave, Digital Realty, and Equinix.
Microsoft and Meta declined to comment on the record to The Verge. Google and the three data center developers didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry from The Verge.
Amazon spokesperson Lisa Levandowski said in an email that “Amazon pays for its own electricity costs—and we challenge anyone claiming otherwise to show their data.” Levandowski pointed to a report Amazon funded that says that its data centers generate more in revenue for utilities than it costs for utilities to serve those facilities.
Levandowski also cited a December report from researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that found that climbing electricity demand can actually shrink average retail electricity prices by spreading out costs among more customers. That study notes, however, that this trend tends to benefit large, nonresidential customers. The researchers based this on data between 2019 and 2024 and cautioned that it’s “unclear” whether the same pattern would play out moving forward if electricity demand continues to rise more steeply.