group on Friday subscriber An online tool allows Americans to send an editable letter to Congress containing the latest request. He stresses that deadly summer heat waves are “fueled by climate change,” and “in 27 states, it’s perfectly legal for utility companies to shut off your power if you’re late on your bills, even on the hottest summer days.”
“No American should lose their life over their electric bill,” Candace Fortin, 350’s director of energy affordability campaigns, said in a statement Friday. “Losing an air conditioner in this heat isn’t an inconvenience — it’s life-threatening. Air conditioning in a dangerous heat wave is what keeps seniors, pregnant women, and young children out of the emergency room, and high usage during summer heat waves is something all utilities plan for.”
“However, ordinary families are once again paying the highest price for a crisis they did not cause,” Fortin explained. “The reason there is so little grid space is that data centers consume electricity on a scale they were not built for, around the clock, every day of the year. Worse still: they are fueled by fossil-fueled energy sources that make heat waves more frequent and deadlier.”
While data centers contributed to the strain on America’s power grids on Thursday, Data for Progress released survey results showing that — along with billionaires, many of whom have made their fortunes from Big Tech companies — Americans see the artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency companies leading the boom in data center construction as big bads for American society and the economy.
To reduce grid stress and the risk of power outages, the U.S. Department of Energy said this week Granted Permission for PJM Interconnection, which serves 67 million people in 13 states, to force data centers to temporarily use backup generators if necessary. However, these systems generally run on diesel or gas means More air pollution for surrounding communities.
“350.org is calling for a moratorium on the construction of new data centers, to give citizens and their elected representatives time to establish democratic rules to manage their impact on energy, water and land,” Fortin said on Friday.
Recently, two controversial progressives, US Senator Bernie Sanders (R-VA) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), introduced a bill to do just that. The proposed AI Data Center Moratorium Act was endorsed by Food & Water Watch (FWW), which last year became the first national organization in the country to call for a moratorium on approval of new AI data centers and, ultimately, in December, led a related letter to Congress supported by hundreds of other advocacy organizations, including multiple 350 chapters.
Since that letter, big tech companies have continued to make billions. “Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta generated net profits of more than $80 billion in the first three months of 2026 alone. In fact, investor-owned utilities, on average, maintained a profit of 14.6 cents on every dollar they raised from taxpayers. They can wait for communities to catch up,” Fortin noted.
She warned that the current heat wave “is a preview of every summer to come.” “Our leaders must choose who to protect: investor-owned technology companies and utilities, or people. Access to clean, affordable energy is a right, not a privilege. True independence means that no American will ever again have to choose between an electric bill they can’t afford, and a heat bill they can’t afford.”
Over the past few years, calls have escalated for state and national bans on utility closures, especially during hot and cold periods. During another bout of high temperatures last summer, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) sent two letters to Democratic congressional leaders as well as governors and mayors, arguing that Republican US President Donald Trump “has put the lives of millions at risk by dismantling federal agencies and life-saving programs that help working families keep their homes cool and survive deadly heat waves like the one this week.”
The coalition — which also included FWW and 350 — urged New York Democrats serving as minority leaders in the U.S. Senate and House, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, to fight for legislation that includes “a strong nationwide moratorium on cutting off power, water, and broadband during extreme heat months, authorizing utilities to restore cut services, waiving late payment fees, and forgiving all utility debt for low-wealth households.”
Months later, last April, the US Energy Information Administration issued a report a report It shows that utility companies disconnected power to American homes more than 13.4 million times in 2024 — which, as the CBD noted, came at a time when electric utilities were “swamped.” Earnings record With more than $54 billion and dividends of $34 billion, “$530 million was paid to managers of investor-owned facilities.”
“These federal data are the most realistic picture we have of the nation’s brutal energy affordability crisis,” Jan Su, director of the CBD’s Energy Justice Program, said at the time. “It is inexcusable for utility executives and shareholders to make record profits while households suffer extreme weather events and are penalized for being poor.”
“We are grateful to Congress and the Energy Information Administration for conducting the first-ever study on how many millions of people are having their power cut off because they cannot pay,” she added. “The only sure way out of this mess is to replace fossil fuel utility price gouging with affordable, renewable community energy.”
As reported by The Washington Post on Friday HighlightIt’s not just potential utility outages that are putting Americans at risk in the United States 23 states Under an “Extreme Heat Warning” from the NWS. The newspaper found that although “about 93% of homes have air conditioning across the country, as do 96% of households in areas at high heat risk this week, about 3 million households currently affected by rising temperatures lack air conditioning.”
“Access to and use of air conditioners is extremely important,” Jaime Madrigano, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told the newspaper. “We know that air conditioning is probably one of the only proven effective strategies that we know saves lives when it comes to heat-related deaths.”
Madrigano also acknowledged those who have air conditioning units or systems at home, but are struggling to pay for them amid rising costs across the economy: “We know that a lot of people are dealing with high utility bills. This is a very urgent crisis in this country right now.” “You may have to choose between food, medication or air conditioning, and feeding your family may be the most pressing concern.”
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