There are more than 5,000 data centers in the U.S. and thousands more on the drawing board. The centers are big consumers of energy to power the racks of servers and big consumers of water to cool those systems. Data centers consume more than 4% of electricity in the U.S. with some studies estimating they may consume as much as 12% by 2030.

On this episode, we discuss data centers and their effect on the energy system with Dan Diorio, vice president for state policy at the Data Center Coalition, a trade group for the data center industry, and Alex McWard, who tracks energy issues, including data centers, for NCSL.

State lawmakers have long been aware of data centers and some of their impacts, but the focus on data centers has increased considerably in the last couple of years, McWard says. He also discussed changing attitudes toward data centers and concerns about energy consumption and how it could affect rates paid by consumers.

Diorio explained the industry's perspective, pointing out that our society now runs on digital information, whether it's watching a football game or making a credit card purchase, and data centers are the backbone of that system. He also pointed to studies indicating that the industry is pulling its weight in terms of paying for the additional electrical load it's putting on the nation's utilities.

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