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by Brian Shilhavy
Health Impact News

Building huge new data centers is the only way for AI to continue raking in huge profits in 2026 for those making the AI chips and software that run the new power-hungry LLM AI programs.

Many local communities and States across the U.S. are pushing back by opposing the building of these data centers in their communities, however. It is likely to even be a key issue in the 2026 mid-term elections.

The Trump Administration is countering this opposition by attempting to take over the nation’s electrical grid, and put into place Federal regulations regarding AI that override local State regulations.

Former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) chairman Mark Christie, a Republican, reportedly stated in the Wall Street Journal that this:

“is one of the biggest federal power grabs at the expense of the states I have seen in 21 years as a state and federal utility regulator” (Source.)

The Wall Street Journal also reported what Trump’s rationale was to take over the nation’s power grid to fuel AI and bypass State laws:

“We have to be unified,” Trump said, noting that China didn’t have to contend with state legislatures.

This is Silicon Valley’s dream: get rid of elections and install a Monarchy. See: Big Tech “Far-Right” Billionaires want to Eliminate Politicians and “Democracy” as They Believe They can Run the World Better by Themselves

Here are some more excerpts from the Wall Street Journal article on federalizing the U.S. power grid, courtesy of MSN:

States see a federal power grab in clash over AI data centers

At a conference of state utility regulators in Seattle, a group of Trump administration officials got an earful of complaints about a plan the White House is pushing for the federal government to take control of part of the country’s power grid in the service of artificial intelligence.

Their concerns stem from instructions Energy Secretary Chris Wright recently gave to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is known as FERC and oversees wholesale power in the U.S., to draft new rules that would give it oversight of how giant data centers connect to the power grid.

The process is typically overseen by states.

During the conference last month, regulators told administration energy officials such as James Danly, deputy secretary of the Energy Department, that Wright’s plan violates the 1935 Federal Power Act, which carves out the separation of oversight of the grid between state and federal governments, according to people familiar with the conversations.

By overseeing how data centers hook up to the grid, federal regulators could make it easier and faster for data centers to construct their own power supply, administration officials have argued.

They have said the rule could turbocharge data center growth as AI giants such as Google, Amazon, Meta and OpenAI open up their trillion-dollar pocketbooks to build power plants and potentially help solve supply-chain bottlenecks that have slowed growth of new generation capacity.

Companies such as Trump Media & Technology Group and Alphabet-backed fusion-energy company TAE Technologies, which agreed to a $6 billion merger, are betting the data-center boom will continue for years.

The move comes amid heightened tensions between the federal government and states over AI oversight.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, recently unveiled state legislation to curb AI’s impact on consumers and to prohibit “utilities from charging Florida residents more to support hyperscale data center development.”

Trump signed an executive order earlier this month that aims to override state laws on artificial intelligence.

It would allow the Justice Department to punish states with rules deemed restrictive for AI, in a move to bring the U.S. under one federal standard.

“We have to be unified,” Trump said, noting that China didn’t have to contend with state legislatures.

The administration’s plan “is one of the biggest federal power grabs at the expense of the states I have seen in 21 years as a state and federal utility regulator” that will result in unnecessary litigation, said former FERC Chairman Mark Christie, a Republican. (Full article.)

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Via https://healthimpactnews.com/2025/trump-wants-the-federal-government-to-own-the-u-s-power-grid-for-ai-and-turn-it-over-to-big-tech/