One economist's answer to data center anxiety

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• 00:02

  This is The Indicator from Planet Money.

• 00:08

  I'm Ricky Mulvey.

• 00:09

  And I'm Adrian Ma.

• 00:10

  It can feel rare these days to find a hot-button political issue that unites Americans across the ideological spectrum.

• 00:17

  But AI data centers might be it.

• 00:20

  AI data centers.

• 00:21

  They're big and noisy and they guzzle energy.

• 00:24

  And in some cities around the country, they're putting a strain on local power grids.

• 00:28

  No wonder in a recent Pew survey, 50% of Americans...

• 00:32

  Said they think data centers will be mostly bad for home energy bills.

• 00:37

  Yeah, and at a time when millions of Americans are seeing rising costs for utilities,

• 00:41

  and a whole lot more, this is just one more thing for them to worry about.

• 00:45

  But today on the show, our guest argues that this isn't a reason to panic.

• 00:49

  When we come back, economist Julia Cartwright brings us a few examples

• 00:53

  from history to argue why the current boom in data centers doesn't mean we're doomed to high electricity prices.

• 01:09

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