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Last week Glenn Beck issued a blunt warning: the AI boom coming in 2026 will strain our electric grids and could lead to brownouts and blackouts for ordinary Americans. He argued that the exponential growth of server farms and AI data centers will outpace grid upgrades and that communities will pay the price. Glenn has been outspoken about this risk for months, and his prediction is no idle fear — he’s been sounding the alarm publicly.
The warning isn’t just media hyperbole; grid operators and reporters are already documenting near-misses tied to massive data centers. A Reuters investigation found a major incident near the D.C. area where dozens of facilities disconnecting en masse produced a dangerous imbalance and forced emergency throttling of generation — the kind of cascade that can lead to regional outages. This isn’t theoretical anymore; the infrastructure is being tested in real time.
State regulators and grid managers are finally reacting, which proves the problem is real and growing. The Associated Press reports that lawmakers and grid operators are considering blunt tools — from mandatory disconnection of high-energy users during emergencies to new rules limiting commitments to huge data centers — because power demand from computational facilities is rising faster than new plants can be built. That means communities could soon be asked to choose between powering factories and homes or powering cloud giants’ servers.
Technical studies are raising fresh alarms about the quality of power delivered to households near data center clusters. Investigations highlighted by outlets like TechCrunch and Bloomberg have linked nearby data center activity to “bad harmonics” and power distortions that can damage appliances, increase fire risk, and contribute to brownouts if left unchecked. This is the kind of slow-moving disaster that sneaks up on families and small businesses — not on venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.
The market is already feeling it: capacity prices in major regional grids have spiked as operators scramble to ensure reliability, and those cost increases get passed straight to consumers. Analysts point to AI-focused data center demand as a primary driver of recent price shocks in the PJM market and other regional systems, which has prompted lawsuits, emergency legislation, and furious debate about who should pay. In short, taxpayers and ratepayers are being saddled with the bill for Big Tech’s power binge.
This is a classic example of government and corporate elites pursuing shiny technology while ignoring basic stewardship of the commons. Big Tech spends billions on lobbying and land grabs next to substations, yet resists binding reliability standards or paying for the grid reinforcements their projects require. Meanwhile, energy policies that fetishize unreliable sources without ensuring firm, dispatchable power have left America vulnerable — and ordinary families will be left in the dark if we don’t change course.
Conservatives shouldn’t cower from technology, but neither should we let profit-driven tech monopolies weaponize our energy systems against the public interest. Local and state leaders must demand accountability: require data centers to provide their own reliable generation, enforce ride-through standards, and stop exporting the costs of this AI boom onto homeowners and industry. If Washington won’t act, communities must protect their lights, livelihoods, and safety from the reckless rush to outsource our power to silicon giants.
