Clarum Advisors
Molly Podolefsky is a Ph.D. economist and leader in the energy and sustainability industry with experience spanning decarbonization, the utilities and energy sector, finance and investment and business management. As a Managing Director with Clarum Advisors, she leverages her knowledge and experience working with utilities, startups, corporations, and funds in the energy transition space.
For over two years, data centers have been headline news within the energy industry. PJM’s July 2024 capacity auction clearing at $270 per megawatt day, up from $29 per megawatt day in the preceding auction, put data center impacts on energy prices squarely into public consciousness. The shock of that ninefold increase remained abstract to most consumers until the summer of 2025, when those costs began appearing on customer bills.
Since then, public sentiment has worsened considerably — while 28 percent of over 4,000 registered voters surveyed in August 2025 by Embold Research blamed data centers “a lot” for rising electricity prices, nine months later that figure exceeded 50 percent, with data centers topping the list of proposed culprits. From Forbes — “AI Data Centers Are Driving Up Electric Bills. Who Pays?” to Consumer Reports — “Inside the Energy Affordability Crisis: We Will All Be Affected by This,” media outlets reflect and amplify consumer anxiety.
Meanwhile, trade industry sources advance the opposing narrative, as illustrated by a NetChoice headline: “New Study Confirms What We’ve Been Saying: Data Centers are Lowering Your Electric Bill.” E3’s May 2026 report on electricity rate drivers, funded and reviewed prior to publication by the Data Center Coalition, found no evidence that data centers were historically subsidized and that states with the largest load increases saw the smallest rate increases.