By Roger Ford and Erin Petrey

Artificial intelligence (AI) is dominating headlines, earnings reports, and social media. It’s already reshaping the American economy, for better or worse, impacting industries from education to healthcare to defense. And with AI comes the data centers that power it. If
Kentucky can benefit from this industry, we must do so with our eyes wide open and with appropriate guardrails in place.

The Department of Energy reports that electricity used by the U.S. data center industry rose from 58 terawatt-hours in 2014 to 176 terawatt-hours in 2023. By 2028, data centers could consume up to 580 terawatt-hours annually – roughly 12% of all U.S. electricity.

When that kind of demand hits the grid, it affects generation, transmission, substations, water systems, utility planning, and ultimately the monthly bills paid by Kentucky families and
businesses.

Speed without safeguards has a long history of leaving regular people with the bill. Kentucky must not hand a blank check to every power-hungry project promising to usher in a new age of prosperity via AI. There are some valid uses of high-performance computing (HPC) and AI, many of which are already part of our current technology landscape, especially if they help deliver critical services like healthcare access or real job growth. Some projects may serve a
genuine public purpose, such as facilitating remote work, more rapidly detecting cybersecurity threats, or optimizing energy systems. However, other applications like cryptomining and digital
asset arbitrage are just cash grabs dressed up as economic development.

Kentucky simply does not have the rules, regulations, or public-interest safeguards in place before projects of this size move forward.

It’s the Wild West.

During the 2026 session, Kentucky lawmakers discussed legislation intended to protect power customers from subsidizing the enormous demands of data centers. That effort failed, putting Kentuckians at a disadvantage and allowing data center development before establishing a serious statewide framework to protect all impacted parties and expose hidden costs.

Frankfort should pass a bipartisan Kentucky Data Center Responsibility Act before any new data center receives tax incentives, expedited approvals, or utility commitments that could expose existing ratepayers to stranded costs. In other words, we must prevent higher bills for Kentuckians by avoiding sweetheart deals for data center developers.

Local governments must benefit through public-private energy partnerships, land leases, special energy districts, franchise fees, or community benefit agreements. Projects seeking tax incentives must demonstrate significant public benefit and should never become public risk.

Kentucky must require full transparency on ownership, financing, foreign involvement, power source, water use, efficiency standards, and especially public health and community impacts before any further data centers are greenlit. Eastern Kentucky – and the rest of the Commonwealth – cannot become another sacrifice making outsiders wealthy while leaving regular Kentuckians to clean up after them.