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EnergyPlatform.News(letter)
August 18, 2025
In this week’s edition of energy and environmental policy news across the states: Rising demand, aging grid drive up U.S. electricity bills; Colorado’s coal plant closure plans face EPA challenge, Wyoming eyes a 10x surge in electricity demand, EIA: Computing energy needs are outpacing all other commercial uses; At a glance Alabama
Plus: Gramlich: The U.S. is falling behind China in high voltage transmission
Electricity prices for American households have increased by 4.5% over the past year, according to federal data.
Analysts point to a combination of growing demand from electric vehicles (EVs), artificial intelligence (AI) systems, and data centers, along with aging infrastructure, as key contributors to the rise in U.S. household electricity costs.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency challenged Colorado’s plans to close the state’s remaining six coal-fired power plants by 2031 over concerns about grid reliability and violation of federal law in a decision published July 16, 2025. The state had attempted to codify closure dates in its Regional Haze Plan, a federal Clean Air Act (CAA) requirement intended to reduce smog and maintain visibility in national park and wilderness areas.
Wyoming will host a data center that could end up using 10 times as much energy as the state spends to power the homes of its half a million residents. Energy infrastructure company Tallgrass and artificial intelligence (AI) data center developer Crusoe have teamed up to build a data center that would initially use 1.8 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, with the potential to use 10 GW.
The electricity it takes to run computers in commercial buildings is expected to increase faster than any other commercial use, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and it will likely outpace lighting, heating and cooling needs in the coming years.
A snapshot of energy and environmental facts about the state of Alabama.
The transmission grid is the great integrator of all resources. While it may seem like transmission expansion is needed just for renewable energy, that is just because wind, solar and battery projects made up almost all of the requests to connect to the grid over the last five years.
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