Soaring electricity prices across one of America’s largest power grids have pulled AI infrastructure directly into the political arena. Households and businesses on the PJM Interconnection network, which spans 13 states and serves more than 65 million people, are seeing steep increases in monthly bills. And lawmakers from New Jersey to Virginia say the culprit is increasingly clear - the explosive growth of AI-driven data centers.

The sector’s expansion, powered by the rapid adoption of large-scale models and GPU clusters, has placed unprecedented strain on transmission capacity. States that once welcomed data centers as economic engines are now fielding voter anger over rising energy costs, stalled infrastructure, and concerns that local utilities cannot keep up. In several districts ahead of next year’s midterms, energy affordability has eclipsed taxes and crime as the top campaign issue.

PJM’s latest projections show that data center load could more than quadruple over the next decade, driven largely by AI systems that require continuous high-density power. While the grid operator acknowledges multiple factors behind price spikes — aging infrastructure, fuel volatility, regional generation bottlenecks — officials say data centers account for a growing share of the pressure. Some counties in Virginia’s tech corridor have experienced dramatic demand surges that forced utilities to quickly approve costly upgrades.

This has triggered a rare political shift. Local leaders who once competed aggressively for hyperscale investment are now reassessing land-use approvals. Legislators in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have introduced bills targeting data center energy disclosure, consumption caps, and special surcharges for high-intensity AI operations. In Virginia, the issue has already become a central theme in state-level races, with candidates warning that unchecked power consumption risks destabilizing the grid.

For the tech industry, the backlash highlights a strategic vulnerability. Big AI companies depend on U.S.-based data centers for compute capacity, but few anticipated how quickly energy demand would collide with public tolerance for higher bills. Industry groups argue that AI infrastructure also stimulates job creation and tax revenue, and warn that punitive regulation could push future build-outs offshore. Still, even major players concede that the energy curve of modern AI remains “unsustainable without aggressive grid modernization.”

The broader implications are significant. Rising electricity costs threaten economic competitiveness across the Mid-Atlantic, intensify debates over renewable capacity, and complicate federal ambitions for domestic AI leadership. In the absence of coordinated national policy, states are forging their own responses — from tax reforms to moratoriums — reshaping where and how the next wave of AI infrastructure will be built.

In the words of one PJM official, “This is the first time residents are feeling the cost of AI before seeing the benefits.” And that imbalance is quickly becoming a political headache.