According to reporting by AZ Central, data centers have been expanding for decades, long before the recent surge in artificial intelligence. One expert interviewed by the publication argues that growing data center demand can be accommodated without creating major tradeoffs for communities or the environment.
The expert also noted that data centers are unlikely to be the primary cause of rising utility bills in the near term, explaining that utility rate changes typically undergo a lengthy approval process before regulators authorize them.
Court Rich, Rose Law Group Co-Founder and Director of the firm’s Energy and Utility Infrastructure Department, tells RLGR, “It’s great to see energy industry thought leaders sifting through all the misinformation driven passion about data centers to conclude that the hype and fearmongering doesn’t match the reality. Data centers are an absolutely necessary piece of technological infrastructure that can be developed in Arizona without using water for cooling and without impacting utility customer rates. At the same time, these projects pay so much in taxes that they can help the rest of us keep our taxes low.”
