cageymaru
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- Joined
- Apr 10, 2003
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Amazon is negotiating secretive deals with state regulators to fund the building of new electrical grids that power the Amazon Web Services data centers and the rates that they pay. The agreed upon prices are considered "trade secrets" by the company, so even though state regulators are negotiating the deals; citizens aren't privy to the information on what rates are being charged. This has created an interesting situation in Virginia and other states as elected officials pass new taxes to shift the cost of upgrading electrical grids solely to taxpayers who still don't know what rate that the data centers are paying.
Power companies, like politicians, actively pursue Amazon. In that way, the company fits into a long U.S. tradition of shifting costs from businesses to poor residents, who already pay about three times more of their income on utility bills than do wealthy households, according to a 2016 ACEEE study. The difference these days is that data-center operators, unlike manufacturing plants, can't claim to be engines of job growth, says the ACEEE's Elliott. "When you attracted the steel mill years ago, you got 2,000 employees," he says. "When you attract a data center, you get maybe 50."
Power companies, like politicians, actively pursue Amazon. In that way, the company fits into a long U.S. tradition of shifting costs from businesses to poor residents, who already pay about three times more of their income on utility bills than do wealthy households, according to a 2016 ACEEE study. The difference these days is that data-center operators, unlike manufacturing plants, can't claim to be engines of job growth, says the ACEEE's Elliott. "When you attracted the steel mill years ago, you got 2,000 employees," he says. "When you attract a data center, you get maybe 50."