{"id":109161,"date":"2026-09-30T08:07:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T12:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=109161"},"modified":"2026-09-30T08:07:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T12:07:05","slug":"shock-to-the-power-bill-remains-a-top-data-centre-worry-among-albertans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/shock-to-the-power-bill-remains-a-top-data-centre-worry-among-albertans\/","title":{"rendered":"Shock to the power bill remains a top data centre worry among Albertans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Macleod Gazette In their political campaigns and discourse, Americans often dig up a chestnut dating from the early 1990s: \u201cIt\u2019s the economy, stupid.\u201d An appropriate variation in Alberta these days might be \u201cit\u2019s the electricity bill, stupid,\u201d as the province and its people sort through the implications of a potentially massive, Big Tech-driven expansion and upgrade of the wires and pipes that keep their lights on. Electrical bills are not the only worry for Albertans when they talk about the boom of data centres designed to serve artificial intelligence. But polling does put the possibility of higher bills at or near the top of their list. Breaking Down the Bill Two lines on your household electrical bill could face upward pressure in&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F09%2F30%2Fshock-to-the-power-bill-remains-a-top-data-centre-worry-among-albertans%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Macleod Gazette In their political campaigns and discourse, Americans often dig up a chestnut dating from the early 1990s: \u201cIt\u2019s the economy, stupid.\u201d An appropriate variation in Alberta these days might be \u201cit\u2019s the electricity bill, stupid,\u201d as the province and its people sort through the implications of a potentially massive, Big Tech-driven expansion and upgrade of the wires and pipes that keep their lights on. Electrical bills are not the only worry for Albertans when they talk about the boom of data centres designed to serve artificial intelligence. But polling does put the possibility of higher bills at or near the top of their list. Breaking Down the Bill Two lines on your household electrical bill could face upward pressure in... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F09%2F30%2Fshock-to-the-power-bill-remains-a-top-data-centre-worry-among-albertans%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Shock to the power bill remains a top data centre worry among Albertans - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/shock-to-the-power-bill-remains-a-top-data-centre-worry-among-albertans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shock to the power bill remains a top data centre worry among Albertans - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Macleod Gazette In their political campaigns and discourse, Americans often dig up a chestnut dating from the early 1990s: \u201cIt\u2019s the economy, stupid.\u201d An appropriate variation in Alberta these days might be \u201cit\u2019s the electricity bill, stupid,\u201d as the province and its people sort through the implications of a potentially massive, Big Tech-driven expansion and upgrade of the wires and pipes that keep their lights on. Electrical bills are not the only worry for Albertans when they talk about the boom of data centres designed to serve artificial intelligence. But polling does put the possibility of higher bills at or near the top of their list. Breaking Down the Bill Two lines on your household electrical bill could face upward pressure in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/shock-to-the-power-bill-remains-a-top-data-centre-worry-among-albertans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-30T12:07:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/30\\\/shock-to-the-power-bill-remains-a-top-data-centre-worry-among-albertans\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/30\\\/shock-to-the-power-bill-remains-a-top-data-centre-worry-among-albertans\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Shock to the power bill remains a top data centre worry among Albertans\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-30T12:07:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/30\\\/shock-to-the-power-bill-remains-a-top-data-centre-worry-among-albertans\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1617,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/30\\\/shock-to-the-power-bill-remains-a-top-data-centre-worry-among-albertans\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/30\\\/shock-to-the-power-bill-remains-a-top-data-centre-worry-among-albertans\\\/\",\"name\":\"Shock to the power bill remains a top data centre worry among Albertans - 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