Toolkit: AI Data Centers

are Taking Over Ohio

  • Across Ohio, massive new data centers are being built to power an array of technologies like artificial intelligence and other data-intensive technologies. Google, Amazon, and Meta have already built large facilities in the state, and more are planned. These facilities consume enormous amounts of electricity, and their rapid expansion is placing new pressure on Ohio’s electric grid, raising concerns that the infrastructure needed to serve them could contribute to higher electricity costs. For an average Ohio family, this translates to roughly a $70 increase on their monthly electric bill just from data center-related electricity demand.

    This toolkit offers timely messaging guidance, key talking points, digital assets, and the latest updates to inform our community about the strain of AI data centers.

    • Show the impact. Ohio families will pay $70 more per month by 2028 for data centers they didn't ask for, while the companies running them extract profits to California.


    • Ohio can’t supply such high demand. Data centers are consuming electricity faster than the grid's supply can keep up. When demand exceeds available supply, electricity prices increase for everyone, not just the companies using the power.


    • Explain the policy failure. In 2025, lawmakers from both parties voted that data centers paid their fair share. Governor DeWine said no. Now Ohioans will pay the price.


    • Call out the irony. While other states are requiring data centers to solve their own power problems, Ohio is letting them outsource the bill to families and small businesses.

    • An offer they can’t refuse. Ohio provides data centers with a $140 million-and-growing annual sales-tax exemption, encouraging more facilities to build and connect to the grid.

    • By 2028, an average Ohio family will pay $70 more per month for electricity, because of data center demand. That's real money out of real families' budgets, while profits flow to tech billionaires in California. [NRDC, 09/30/2025]

    • Ohio's legislature voted to eliminate the $140 million annual tax incentive for data centers, but Governor DeWine vetoed it. The legislature never tried to override. That's a failure, and Ohioans are paying for it. [Statehouse News, 08/08/2025]

    • Ohio is giving data centers mixed signals. It tells them to 'pay their share' while simultaneously handing them $140 million in annual tax breaks. You can't do both.

    • Electricity costs surged tenfold in one year, with data centers causing nearly two-thirds of the increase. As a leading data center state, Ohio should lead on policy and not lag behind. [IEEFA, 07/30/2025]

    • While other states are regulating, Ohio is opening the floodgates and letting them pass costs to families. Connecticut is requiring data centers to build their own power plants, and Georgia is banning utilities from shifting data center costs to residents. What about Ohio?

  • SOUND THE ALARM:  

    • Share the truth: AI data centers aren’t paying their share in taxes because Ohio is  forcing  families to pay the price.

    • Use your voice to inform your neighbors about the strain AI data centers have on our resources.

    • CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES: Tell them to end all tax breaks for AI data centers, and have them pay their fair share.

    WRITE & SPEAK OUT:

    • Publish op-eds or letters to the editor telling them how AI data centers are impacting your environment and daily life. 

    • Contact your local government to see what they are doing to stand up to data centers. Demand transparency over NDAs.

    • Share stories from your family, small business, or neighborhood about how electricity costs are affecting all of you.

  • AI Data Centers Content

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