Your electricity bill has gone up nearly 7% in the past year. And it's about to get worse. The culprit? AI. Those massive data centers powering ChatGPT, Google search, and your Instagram feed are guzzling electricity at an unprecedented rate. By 2028, they could account for 12% of all U.S. power consumption—up from just 4.4% in 2023. In some regions, the impact has already been staggering. In Virginia's data center corridor, power capacity auction prices jumped 833% in a single year. Then, on March 4, 2026, something unexpected happened. Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, OpenAI, Oracle, and Elon Musk's xAI walked into the White House and signed the "Ratepayer Protection Pledge."