What The Research Says

“From now through 2050, the low-carbon scenarios modeled in the study show net savings between $20 billion and $56 billion. When the analysis also quantifies the economic benefits associated with avoided climate change impacts, net economic benefits are more than $600 billion in every scenario.”

Conservation Colorado Education Fund, GreenLatinos, NAACP CO-MT-WY State Conference, the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project and Western Resource Advocates
Colorado's Clean Affordable Climate Pathways Report
December 10, 2025

“Working families across the country are stuck paying more for electricity, and many are being hit with incessant noise, light pollution, and toxic emissions. Residents’ electricity costs in some data center-dense areas have surged over 250% in just five years. At PJM—the world’s largest power market—capacity auction prices spiked 800% in 2024, in part due to data center growth. That same year, consumers across seven PJM states paid $4.3 billion more in electricity costs to cover data centers’ new transmission infrastructure.”

”With natural gas prices rising, and the costs of renewables declining, markets are quickly tipping. Before 2018, most clean energy projects were more expensive than their fossil fuel alternatives (on a levelized cost basis). But in 2024, more than 90% of installed renewable energy capacity was cheaper. Nearly all nations see the cheapest new capacity from solar or wind, and nearly half the world’s electricity demand comes from countries where solar-plus-storage already beats fossil fuels on price.”

”New modeling from the Open Energy Outlook Initiative shows that data center and cryptocurrency mining growth through 2030 could increase average U.S. electricity generation costs by 8% and greenhouse gas emissions from power generation by 30%.”

Carnegie Mellon University
Michael Blackhurst, Cameron Wade, Joe DeCarolis, Anderson de Queiroz, Jeremiah Johnson, Paulina Jaramillo
Data Center Growth Could Increase Electricity Bills 8% Nationally and as Much as 25% in Some Regional Markets
July 16, 2026

”Electricity and gas prices are not just outpacing inflation, but are now the fastest drivers of inflation. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that, between December 2024 and December 2025, residential electricity prices have increased 7% while gas prices have risen nearly 11%, far outpacing the overall rate of inflation of 3% during this time period.”

”Delaying coal retirement until 2034 and replacing the unit with nuclear SMR is the most expensive option by far under all cost measures and scenarios; it is up to double the cost of some alternatives. Nuclear SMR is more expensive even compared to scenarios in which Nixon Unit 1’s retirement is delayed until 2032 and wind and solar are no longer eligible for federal tax credits. Depending on the cost metric that is used, the cheapest option is either replacing the coal unit with a portfolio of wind, solar PV, and battery storage by 2030, or converting the unit to natural gas and adding wind and solar PV by 2030.”

Applied Economics Clinic on behalf of the Sierra Club
Tyler Comings, Joshua R. Castigliego, Sagal Alisalad, Jordan Burt, PhD
Economic Analysis of Options for Replacing the Ray D. Nixon Coal Unit
December 2025

”Comparing the operational costs of these two portfolios under a base, low, and high natural gas price assumption indicates that a portfolio that relies almost entirely on new thermal resources to meet the large load growth has higher operational costs, driven primarily by the fuel costs. Tariff setting for large loads is often focused on the major categories of cost needed to serve any load, i.e., generation, transmission, and distribution. However, relying on natural gas to meet demand from large load customers will increase natural gas cost exposure for all customer classes.”

Energy Futures Group
Large Loads and Natural Gas Price Risk
January 6, 2026

”From 2010 through 2023, total annual electricity sales grew by approximately 1% per year. Now, the utilities are collectively forecasting an increase in annual energy demand of about 4.5% per year between 2025 and 2035. A similar trend is true for peak energy demands, exacerbating grid stress. These higher load forecasts are driving increased greenhouse gas emissions for utilities. One telling example is NV Energy, whose projected emissions in its 2024 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) jumped 53% from its 2022 estimates. This amounts to 3.2 million tons of additional greenhouse gas pollution.”

”According to the LBL report to Congress, the large “hyperscale” data centers, including ‘AI-specialized’ data centers, will begin to dominate the total energy use of data centers over the next five years. See Figure 2. By 2028, LBL projects that hyperscale and colocation data centers will account for over 90% of server energy consumption, primarily driven by AI work demands.”

Southwest Energy Efficiency Project
Data centers: Power needs and clean energy challenges
March 27, 2025

”When a utility expands its system in anticipation of growing consumer demand, ratepayers share the costs of that expansion based on the premise that society benefits from growing electricity use. But data centers are upending this long-standing model. The very same utility rate structures that have spread the costs of reliable power delivery for everyone are now forcing the public to pay for infrastructure designed to supply a handful of wealthy corporations.”

“In Colorado, the typical residential gas customer uses 17% less gas today than in2010, yet their total bill is up 30% over the same period. Residential gas delivery charges in Colorado have overtaken charges for the gas. In 1984, 73% of a gas bill went toward the fuel itself (“gas”) and 27% toward paying for pipes and other infrastructure, utility operating costs, and taxes (“delivery”). In the mid-2010s, this flipped. Today, one-third of charges are for gas and two-thirds are for delivery charges that will not fall with lower use.”

The Future of Heat Initiative
Paying More For Less: Rising Gas Bills In Colorado
February 13, 2026

“Voters’ main concerns with respect to data centers revolve around higher utility costs and power outages, with these issues ranking as the most selected concerns in head-to-head matchups with other data center-related concerns. When asked whether they support the construction of data centers powered by fossil fuels, voters opposed by a 16-point margin. However, when asked about data centers powered by clean energy, voters supported their construction by a +25-point margin.”

Blue Rose Research (for Climate Power)
NEW POLLING: Research on AI Data Centers, Costs, and Pollution
February 20, 2026

“Between 2025 and 2050, our analysis finds that climate change could impose roughly $33 billion to $37 billion in additional costs and resilience needs across Colorado’s health, infrastructure, wildfire, flooding, and winter recreation impacts. The largest quantified drivers are extreme heat, which could lead to about 1,800 to 1,900 additional heat-related deaths, or about $24 billion to $25 billion in losses, and infrastructure pressures totaling about $8.3 billion to $8.7 billion in added costs and upgrades as roads, bridges, stormwater systems, and building cooling demand are pushed beyond historical design conditions. Wildfire smoke and property impacts add another $1.3 billion, with additional resilience needs on the order of $2.3 billion. These figures do not capture every hazard or indirect loss, but they make one point clear: Planning and investment now can save lives and avoid much larger costs later.”

Colorado Fiscal Institute
Colorado Climate Damages & Adaptation Costs Report
January 30, 2026