Support CleanTechnica's work througha Substack subscription,on Patreon, oron Stripe. Help us produce all of thehigh-quality, original content we publish week after weekdespite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles.WILMINGTON, Delaware** — **Today, Sierra Club celebrated Delaware Governor Matt Meyer signing into law a suite of legislation that will protect families in the state from having to pay for Big Tech’s pricey artificial intelligence data centers.
The legislation being signed into law today is a first-of-its-kind bill that ensures data centers are building clean energy to power their data centers. It will also require data centers to pay their fair share of the electricity bill and to fund necessary infrastructure upgrades to strengthen the electricity grid. Another new law will address soaring energy costs by giving the Delaware Public Service Commission more oversight to limit rate hikes and increase transparency from utility finances.
Sierra Club Delaware Chapter has been actively engaging with communities to hold Big Tech companies accountable and demand more guardrails around data centers.
In response to the signing, Sierra Club Delaware Chapter Director Dustyn Thompson issued the following statement:
“Data Centers have become the existential threat to our communities, to our environment, and to our planet of this moment. As energy costs surge for Delaware families, due to the more than doubling of the cost of natural gas and the extreme demand for power and infrastructure by data centers, the Sierra Club is proud of the work Delaware has done this year to protect consumers.
“These bills make Delaware a leader in promoting protection of our energy grid and electric costs for residential customers. Delaware, the First State, is now the First State in the nation to pass a bring your own energy policy with clean energy requirements, the First State to require such a comprehensive agreement with the utility to guarantee all data center costs are paid for by data centers, and the First State to remove the obligation to supply electricity to these large loads if it would harm consumers. Delaware is once again the First State, showing our neighbors a valuable path forward to bring balance to this conversation in a moment when it matters most.”
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