Katherine Blunt is a brilliant energy writer, and her remarkable book California Burning distills how PG&E’s chronic mismanagement, aging equipment, and regulatory evasions set the stage for some of the most devastating wildfires in California history. She vividly illustrates how a culture of cost‑cutting and denial allowed small, preventable failures to escalate into disasters that killed dozens and destroyed entire communities. It’s a portrait of a utility whose systemic lapses turned a basic public service into a statewide threat.
However, this article is sorely lacking, in failing to describe an important way that the data center "build out" is faltering. Many community grassroots efforts and organized groups are pushing back hard in several states and across all ISO/RTO grid regions, attempting to ban or restrict new data centers, using every tool from state statutes to municipal ordinances to confronting toady politicians. The article only barely mentions PJM, the nation's largest power market and home to the most data centers, and essentially avoids discussing the massive burden that "ordinary" residential and small business ratepayers are suffering so that a handful of multi-billionaire tech bros benefit.
Nick Evans of the Ohio Capital Journal details a citizen result in Ohio, home to more than 200 data centers, with some 70+ planned by 2030, the majority in the state capital Columbus area.