Letters to the Editor: Are AI data centers the next profit bonanza for private utilities?

To the editor: An obvious solution to the problem of exploding electricity usage by artificial-intelligence data centers would be to require them to be covered with solar panels and have banks of batteries so they could be at least partially self-sufficient.

This would cut into the infrastructure profit bonanza of the utilities, but it would go a long way to enabling the state to achieve our renewable energy goals. It would also protect home consumers from being gouged to maintain utility profits.

Given the recent California Public Utilities Commission decisions that have curtailed home and small-business solar, it seems clear that the state’s energy policy is to keep power generation centralized and make sure that private utilities can earn a great deal of profit by building infrastructure to feed the massive demand of data centers.

The utilities get to pass on the cost of all of this infrastructure, with profits tacked on, to individual ratepayers.

Alex Murray, Altadena

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To the editor: Your excellent article exposes the complete madness of society’s unquenchable thirst for more electric power.

Do we really need AI? We should at the very least put a limit on its power demands, or else the world will always be “chasing” to satisfy ever-increasing electricity consumption. This will put a clean energy future completely out of reach.

The same goes for cryptocurrency mining, which should also be exposed for its gluttonous power consumption while adding no value to society.

Mike Sovich, Glendale

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To the editor: It was hard to avoid the Aug. 31 print edition’s front-page irony of a story about AI-created energy burdens above another story about trying to keep California workers cool in our warming environment.

California’s leaders seem eager to bend over to accommodate the needs of Silicon Valley while dragging their feet on enforcing workplace cooling regulations.

Our state leaders seem to care more about billionaire’s profits than the needs of working people.

Scott Herbertson, Burbank