David Kolata

VP of Policy, Sealed. Music fan. Dog lover. Chess enthusiast. Navigating the nexus between policy and politics.

[Alec Stapp @AlecStapp]

Now that everyone can see firsthand the success of congestion pricing in NYC, looking back on the environmental review process feels even more absurd.

4,000 pages and 3 years of review to study the environmental impact of… using cameras and prices to reduce traffic.

[Nat Bullard @NatBullard]

What speed to power is worth. New @FERC: QTS Data Centers is paying ITC Transmission $55 million to accelerate construction of a transmission line needed for its Cedar Rapids site by four months, from September 2027 to May 2027 (via @halcyon)

[𝗙𝗜𝗔𝗚𝗢 🇩🇪 @fiago7]

Chicago I wasn’t familiar with your game. That Riverwalk is actually elite. Chicago River is clean, you got green everywhere around it and beautiful little café‘s. Top tier city. I will be back 🇺🇸

[Tyler Norris @tylerhnorris]

Another great opportunity to join @Google’s energy team — making the next gen of data centers compliant with emerging grid codes. Everything from smoothing ML-training driven fluctuations to NERC compliance in scope. Focus primarily North America, but you'll have a front row seat & will make big contributions at the frontier of TPU/GPU deployments globally.

[Tyler Norris @tylerhnorris]

“We have to find solutions to better utilize the system than we’re doing right now,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s global head of data center energy. https://t.co/Wlwh3mcHZm

[David Kolata @KolataDavid]

@TKavulla What's particularly insane about this is that the gas plants were required to run even above and beyond known transmission constraints and it was all for the (potential) benefit of customers to the east anyway.

[David Kolata @KolataDavid]

@pcriley @TKavulla @JigarShahDC The reason they didn't and recovered it all in one month is that there is also a very large carbon Mitigation credit this billing month. The cmc doesn't cancel it out but it's close. Not judging whether that's the right call but that is an explanation

[Travis Kavulla @TKavulla]

Out today: My @AmericanAffrs essay trying to reset the often-fever-pitched conversation about data centers & energy, with concrete ideas for how growth can be accelerated and legacy consumers can be protected -->

[David Kolata @KolataDavid]

I submit for consideration the weirdest electric bill of all time. $52 PEA? -$42 CMC? -$110 community solar? Hourly pricing? Distribution TOU? This one has it all. #iykyk #ceja #PJMWTF #electric

[Shanu Mathew @ShanuMathew93]

There’s a lot of cognitive dissonance in the power debate right now.

On one side: data centers are framed as the source of all evil, driving electricity bills higher and consuming every incremental megawatt.

On the other: people still haven’t fully internalized what broad-based electrification and decarbonization actually require. Electric vehicles, heat pumps, industrial electrification, reshoring, transmission upgrades, battery manufacturing, air conditioning growth, etc. This was always going to be an enormous power demand story.

That’s why I keep coming back to the same point: AI/data centers may be one of the best things to happen to grid investment in decades.

For the first time in a long time, you have:
-governments prioritizing infrastructure
-corporates willing to sign long-duration power contracts at above market prices
-capital markets willing to fund generation/transmission
-customers that can actually support the returns needed for massive buildouts

Does it solve everything perfectly? Of course not. There will be bottlenecks, local stress, permitting fights, bad projects, longer thermal runoff period,and periods of volatility.

But absent another generational supercycle where incentives align across utilities, policymakers, infrastructure developers, and private capital, this may be one of the strongest opportunities we get to materially modernize and expand the grid, ever!

Also a little convenient how some of the loudest proponents of gas stove bans, EV mandates, and broad electrification are suddenly treating data centers as the sole culprit behind higher power prices.

[Jeff Dennis @EnergyLawJeff]

This series from @The_Michael_Lee is an amazing deep dive into how we actually make the utility of the future one that is a platform for customer services. I haven't read all of it yet, but this post on the reality of culture change is so important. 1/ https://t.co/vBni9YTvfI

[David Kolata @KolataDavid]

@bslotterback @Microsoft Is there an hourly matching component, though?

[Steve Everley @saeverley]

"Data center expansion is not currently the predominant driver of increased electricity prices in U.S. states"

https://t.co/ZjfL4vfh7a

[Alexander C. Kaufman @AlexCKaufman]

You should absolutely read @hollyjeanbuck's latest piece on data centers: https://t.co/uCTGp5aLbG

[David Kolata @KolataDavid]

A surefire investment!

[Montreal Expos @Montreal_Expos]

The Montreal Expos are exiting the baseball space. During Q2 and Q3 2026, we will transition to acquiring high-performance GPU assets. This is all part of our long-term vision to become a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and AI-native cloud solutions provider.

[Travis Kavulla @TKavulla]

A big problem in the Texas electricity market: Residential customers can do exactly the same thing in terms of reducing their demand as industrial customers but not reap the same reward.

@OctopusEnergyUS @teslaenergy @GotRhythmHQ & @basepowerco team up today to propose a reform:

[Tyler Norris @tylerhnorris]

This is accurate - but we still lack true nonfirm/conditional firm service tiers for flexible large loads in most jurisdictions. Let’s get it fixed!

[Utilize Coalition @utilizegrid]

U.S. Energy @SecretaryWright on grid utilization:
"The states that have done the best on electricity prices, all of them have fast demand growth. The faster your demand growth is, the more you can push your electricity prices down. And another reason for this, it's just more efficient use of assets. Our electricity grid today, as we sit here, it only operates at about 50% capacity. So today, we've got hundreds of gigawatts of spare power right now."

[Tyler Norris @tylerhnorris]

.@SecretaryWright at BlackRock Infrastructure Summit, March 11th:

“Our electricity grid today, as we sit here, it only operates at about 50% capacity. So we have hundreds of gigawatts of spare capacity right now - bring all the data centers you can build in the next 5 years and we can power them at this hour… so now the average utilization of all those assets goes up, the per unit cost goes down, and in addition the hyperscalers like Google, they’re very cooperative - they want to build large assets, they’ll put money up front to build infrastructure, they’ll sign long term contracts that allows long term new assets to be built.”

[David Kolata @KolataDavid]

This is an important, and frustrating, issue

[Travis Kavulla @TKavulla]

Each municipality (525 in all) in Illinois has its own approach to permitting @basepowerco & other energy-storage tech. That imposes costs & friction to our customers. As a result, whole communities may get left behind as companies just say "no thanks" to the hassle. Not great!