So, you know all those AI data centers

popping up everywhere that need insane

amounts of power? Well, a lot of them

may never actually get built, but it

doesn't matter because you're already

paying for them. And the fee that

they're driving up is one you've never

noticed, set by an auction you've never

heard of. And oh, it's run by a

mysterious organization that controls

what 67 million people pay every month.

But that's only half of it. Because the

company whose name is actually on your

bill, the one you can't leave even if

you wanted to, they don't make money by

selling you electricity. The real

business model is building things like

power lines and charging you. And what's

happening with data centers just gave

them the biggest excuse to build in the

history of the American power grid. And

there's one deal right now that's about

to become the template for how this

happens across the entire country. And

the whole thing is starting to follow

the same playbook as housing before

2008. But here's the part that no one's

talking about. Even if AI turns out to

be completely overhyped and the whole

bubble pops tomorrow, none of it goes

away because you obviously can't unbuild

a gas plant and the grid that they're

all connecting to is already starting to

break. But what will go away is

something even more important.

So, after looking into why my

electricity bill keeps going up, I found

two schools of thought. Some say it's

because AI data centers uses too much

power, and some say it's simple supply

and demand. And that's not entirely

wrong. But that's not exactly how the

cost reaches you. Because what I found

is more specific and way worse in a

deeper reason into why nobody who can

fix it wants to. And it all starts with

the wild way your electricity is being

priced in the first place. Not many

people know this, but part of your

electricity bill isn't paying for power

you actually use. About 10 to 15% of

your bill is basically a reservation fee

like at a restaurant where they charge

you just for booking a table, which I

hate by the way. But instead of

reserving a table, you're reserving

electricity so there's enough for

everyone when they need it. So just

think about it like this. Like let's say

you're throwing this giant party on a

Friday night and a 100 people RSVP to

your dinner, but nobody really actually

likes you. So only 40 people actually

shows up. You're still going to have to

pay for the 100 people. And that's

exactly how your electricity bill works.

You're not just paying for what gets

used, but what might get used. And the

price of this reservation is set by this

organization called PJM Interconnection.

And most people have never really heard

of them, but they run the power grid

across 13 states. So if you live in

Virginia or Ohio, they're deciding a

pretty big chunk of what you and 67

million people pay every month for

electricity. And how they decide it is

by running an auction every year, where

the companies that own power plants bid

on how much they want to be paid by PJM.

I know it sounds weird, but how it works

is PJM picks the cheapest bids first

until they have enough power to meet

whatever demand that's forecasted. So,

the idea is that through competition,

companies are incentivized to bid low to

get picked instead of just throwing out

wild numbers like $420,69.

But here's the catch. Once you're in, it

doesn't matter what you bid because

every power plant company that won the

auction gets paid whatever the most

expensive bid was to get in. And that

price gets baked right into your

electricity bill. And for years, the

system just worked. And none of this

really mattered to you because the

electricity bill stayed relatively the

same until AI data center showed up. And

now I get to make this video because the

price exploded to a point that none of

you can ignore. And the most obvious is

in Virginia has the highest

concentration of data centers where they

even have this thing called the data

center alley. And just in a span of two

years, the AI boom has tripled

Virginia's forecasted energy demand

forecasted because ever since data

centers came in the picture, that

auction price has literally went from

$29 to $270. And the most recent one in

December of 2025, it hit $333. and it

would have gone a lot higher, but that

was the legal maximum. And so, we can

throw all these numbers around, but how

that roughly shows up on your

electricity bill is roughly $140 per

household in extra cost. And again, this

is purely because of forecasted

electricity demand for data centers. And

the reason why I keep stressing that

distinction is because it matters.

Because the fact that it's forecasted is

where it makes it a lot lot worse.

Because when a company like Meta or

Microsoft just wants to build a data

center, they don't just pick one

location, right? They're applying for

grid connections in multiple states at

the same time because just like you and

I would compare prices from different

sellers on Amazon, they want to get the

cheapest power and deal. But the problem

here is I don't think you understand the

scale that they're doing this at.

Already utilities across the country

have received connection requests

totaling 700 gawatt. So to put that in

perspective, the entire United States

uses 477. But that's not even the part

that should get you pissed because

remember when these data center

developers apply to a bunch of potential

locations before they commit to one,

what I found is that sometimes they're

not even committing to any. But the

thing that I found about these

applications is that they just sit in

the queue and never get cancelled. And

why that's important is to remember PJM

sets the auction price based on how much

electricity demand is in the forecast.

So all those ghost applications that

were never cancelled are inflating the

forecast which is also inflating the

auction price to keep going up. So what

this all means is that ghost data

centers that may never exist are

literally raising your electricity bill

right now. When what happened in Ohio

proves what I'm talking about. Ohio had

become one of the biggest hotspots for

AI data center applications in the

country and companies were claiming that

there was so much demand that it was

enough to power about 24 million homes.

But the thing is Ohio regulator called

out their bluff. They told the

developers if you actually want this

power you have to pay 85% up front and

if you cancel you're going to pay an

exit fee. What what do you think

happened? Once they had to pay real

money down more than half the requests

disappeared overnight. So, what this

shows is that everybody knows that these

numbers are inflated. The power

companies know, so do the regulators,

but it doesn't matter because you're

still paying based on these inflated

forecasted numbers. So, then that brings

up a question of if everybody knows, why

isn't anyone fixing this? Well,

remember, every power plant that wins

the auction gets paid the same price.

So, when inflated forecasts push that

price up, big power plant companies like

Constellation Energy make $2.2 billion

from a single auction. But when Trump

announced a plan to run an emergency

auction that would force data centers to

actually start paying for their own

power,

>> you're under this new agreement. Big

tech companies are committing to fully

cover the cost of increased electricity

production required for AI data centers.

>> Constellation stock dropped 9.7% within

a few hours. So what I'm trying to spell

out here is that just like we saw with

Ohio, if data centers have to pay, the

forecast come down. And if the forecasts

come down, the auction price comes down.

So, it's pretty damn simple why nobody's

fixing it. And it's because the broken

system is the business model. And now

the only reason it's not worse is

because Pennsylvania's governor sued PJM

and forced that $333 temporary cap on

the auction price. But the thing is that

cap just expired and the next auction is

in a few months in June 2026 and there's

no cap in place. Okay? Okay. So, what's

pretty clear is that this isn't just

supply and demand like you can explain

with rising houses. In fact, I say what

AI data centers are doing to your

electricity is something a lot more of a

hidden playbook like housing in 2008.

I'll get to that, but what I just

explained with the auction is only half

of it. There's a second pipeline that's

making this even worse. The thing about

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your child's email address. So now back

to the video because the auction was one

pipeline, but the second one is the

company whose name is actually on your

bill. And once you understand how they

make money, everything that's happening

with data centers and your electricity

starts looking a little bit like 2008.

So I think most of you probably know

that electric utilities in most of

America are monopolies. But what most

people don't know is how your utility

actually makes money. Most people assume

it's by selling you electricity, which

obviously makes sense, but how they

actually make money is by building

things like new power lines and

transmissions. Because what you don't

know is that utility companies can

charge you for the cost of building

things plus a guaranteed profit on top.

So, it doesn't matter whether the

community actually needs it or not. The

incentive for a lot of utility companies

is that the more they build, the more

that they can charge across their

utility customers and the more that they

earn. And you can probably start seeing

why AI data centers literally just gave

utility companies the biggest excuse in

the history of the American power grid.

And one company shows you exactly what

that deal looks like. So there's this

utility in Virginia called Dominion

Energy. And if you've never heard of

them, they run more data centers out of

their territory than any utility on the

planet. And Dominion told regulators

that they need $7.6 billion to build new

transmissions lines for all the data

centers that moved into their territory.

And when regulators asked like who the

hell is going to pay for all of this,

one of Dominion's own witnesses blew the

whistle that regular customers like you

would be paying for more than half of

it, including the transmission lines

that only serve data centers. So the

easiest way to understand how insane

that is is to think about your apartment

building. Like imagine a new tenant

moves in next door and he needs like the

whole electrical system rewired just for

his unit. But instead of the apartment

building billing just that tenant, your

landlord splits the cost across

everyone's rent. That's exactly what

Dominion is doing. So now to Virginia's

credit, they actually have tried to fix

this. Regulators are forcing Dominion to

create a whole new rate class just for

these data centers with 14-year

contracts, which is fair. And they even

stripped away $350 million in charges

that Dominion was trying to sneak onto

rateayers. So that sounds like a pretty

big win in regulation, right? Well, the

data center lobby's own attorney

probably said the quiet part out loud

that Dominion's real motive was in to

quote to vigorously protect that

opportunity by shifting as much risk as

possible from its shareholders onto its

highload customers. So by deciphering

the lawyer talk the real motive wasn't

to protect you but to lock these data

centers into 14 years of guaranteed

revenue. But even after all that

regulation, analysis is showing that

rateayers will still cover 61% of

upgrade costs once those 14-year

contracts expire. So, at the end of the

day, the long-term risk and costs are

still going to land on you. And what's

crazy, this is just one of the only

deals that you can actually see because

most of these deals, you'll never even

know that they happened. Harvard Law

looked into nearly 50 of these deals and

proceedings and found that contracts are

almost always confidential. It was only

in Wisconsin that even though state

filings blacked out the name of the tech

company on a transmission project, the

federal filing for the exact same

project revealed that it was a project

with Microsoft. So, if you're wondering

if the utility that dominates your area

is doing the same thing, yeah, probably

considering every utility in America

runs on the same model. Utilities

nationwide have already requested $ 31

billion in rate hikes, which matches

what they spent in the entire last

decade. And yes, much of that is being

driven by data center infrastructure

investment. So, what worries me is that

like I mentioned earlier, the auction

added $140 in extra cost per household,

but the utility buildout hasn't even

started billing you for what's to come

in the next few years. And everything

I've shown you so far is when regulators

were at least asking questions and

pushing back. But now the question

becomes, what happens when they stop

asking questions entirely? Well, there's

one deal that's happening right now that

nobody's watching that's about to take

everything a step further. And if

something doesn't change, it may start

looking like 2008 for everyone involved.

It all starts in Holly Ridge, Louisiana

with a population of 2,000 and where a

quarter of residents live below the

poverty line. And just recently, Meta

picked it as the site for the largest AI

data center in the world that will need

three times what the entire city of New

Orleans uses in power every year. So to

power something like that, you're going

to need new power plants. And in this

case, three of them that will cost $3.2

billion total. So now, normally when a

project like this does come along, the

utility has to put it out to a bid. It's

the same idea as getting quotes from a

few contractors before you renovate your

house, compare prices, and the best

deals. But their utility that runs

Louisiana's power grid is a company

called Intery. And if you've been paying

attention, they're a utility company

like Dominion. And just like, okay, I

think it's called Intery. The more they

build, the more they earn. So Intery

looked at this $3.2 $.2 billion project

and skip the entire bidding process

entirely and just hire themselves. And

by doing so, they generated $178 million

in new shareholder profit. And with that

much money on the line, they weren't

going to wait around. The vote to

approve all this was originally

scheduled in October, but was then

pushed up to August. And so, the public

literally just got a week's notice on a

decision that will shape their

electricity bills for decades. Here's a

part that should piss you off. Meta only

signed a 15-year power agreement. But

those power plants Energy is building

last around 30 years. So what this means

is that if everything goes according to

plan, even if Meta stays for the full 15

years, there's still another 15 years

where someone has to pay for power

plants that were built entirely for a

company that's already gone. And in

Louisiana, that someone is you. So you

kind of start seeing how this build

fast, big, and collect fees sounds like

housing pre208, right? Okay, maybe

that's a bit of a stretch, but just like

2008, the danger isn't the construction.

The real danger are the deals that are

underneath it. Because turns out Meta

didn't actually sign this deal with

Meta. They created a shell company

called Ley LLC and signed through that.

Then on the exact same day regulators

approved the gas plant, Meta quietly

registered another company in Delaware

called Bayet Investor. And two months

later, Meta sold 80% of the entire

project to a private equity firm called

Blue Owl Capital through that Bayonet

LLC. And just like that, Meta went from

owner to tenant. So, think about what

that means. Again, with the analogies,

if you own a house and the roof caves

in, that's your problem. But if you're

renting, you just don't renew the lease.

That's exactly what Meta did, except the

house is a $27 billion data center, and

the landlord who gets stuck with it is

you. Because remember how I said that

Meta signed a 15-year lease? Well, after

the restructuring, Meta's lease actually

now renews every four years. So,

theoretically, it can walk away in four

while those power plants that are being

built sit for 30. And most importantly,

no matter what they decide, a $550

million transmission line connecting

those power plants to Meta's facility is

already on rateayers bills. So, if we're

going to keep going with this 2008

comparison, this is the part where the

government made it easier to do it again

and again. After the Meta Deal,

Louisiana only moved faster. The state

passed something called a lining

amendment. And the easiest way to think

about it is this. Everything that went

wrong with the metad deal, like the skip

bidding, the rush timeline, the cost on

rateayers. Louisiana looked at literally

all that and literally said, "Let's make

this a template." Just like that, Energy

already has new data center proposals

across four states like Arkansas and

even Texas where I live. And if

approved, this would add the electricity

demand of 10 New Orleans to the grid and

way faster, too. But remember, the

United States power grid can barely

handle what's already here. In fact,

PJM's last auction fell short of its own

reliability targets. And if nothing

changes, parts of the country could fall

below safety standards by June 2027. And

with the speed and rate of development

that's behind the biggest bet in human

history, at this point, the real stakes

now isn't just talking about higher

bills. We're literally talking about

potential blackout.

So, just so I'm abundantly clear, no,

I'm not directly comparing your

electricity bill to a global financial

collapse. But the point is this playbook

is awfully similar. Insiders structure

deals so they can walk away. Regulators

make it easier instead of harder. And

nobody sees it coming until it's too

late. And guess who's going to pay that

price? So, now that you know all this,

the question becomes whether knowing it

changes anything. Right now, 4 million

households had their power shut off last

year. And with 21 million households

falling behind on their payments, it's

going to become a lot more. The thing

is, people are starting to figure it

out. Over 300 bills targeting data

center regulation has been filed across

30 states, and nearly 98 billion in

projects are being blocked by local

communities. But what's also clear is

that for every win, the system also

pushes harder. California tried to force

data centers to pay their fair share and

big tech quickly lobby that down. So if

regulation isn't working to 100% and the

push back does get crushed most of the

times, you think the only way out for

what's happening is for the AI bubble to

pop, right? And there's actually a

really popular video by Hank Green

arguing exactly that, that if AI

collapses with the supply and demand,

electricity prices are going to come

back down. And look, I like Hank. He's a

very smart guy. But that argument treats

this like this really is a supply and

demand problem

>> because demand for electricity is going

to come up, but supply is being

intentionally artificially constrained.

>> And if you made it to this point, you

should understand that it's not. Because

that's actually the real lesson about

how all this stuff works. Not just with

electricity and AI data centers, but

with everything. Because in a world of

money and power, supply and demand is

never the full story. When insiders can

structure deals to walk away in four

years. When utilities profit from every

dollar that they spend regardless of

whether anyone needs what they're

building. When lobbyists can gut a

regulation before it's even written. And

our Congress people can trade stocks.

The real game can never be explained by

a simple supply and demand graph. That's

for the permanent underclass. And the

thing is the people who build these

systems understand this very well. And I

think the only way to not be on the

wrong end of it is to understand it too.

So, if you're anything like the special

3,000 of you who are already learning

how money and power works, I'll be going

even deeper into this issue next week on

my free newsletter in the video

description. But if you want to watch

how all this relates to what's happening

with the overall AI bubble, go and watch

our video on why everyone wants you to

believe AI is a bubble.