THE DAILY MINE ⛏️

Good morning. America now spends more on computing hardware than on homes, Democrats are campaigning against data centers in towns that don't have one, and Wisconsin's two parties have found something to agree on: 765-kV lines. The buildout is now the economy and the campaign at the same time.

Top Stories

AI HARDWARE INVESTMENT OVERTAKES HOUSING
Fortune
San Francisco Fed Vice President Adam Shapiro called it a pivotal shift from homes to computers. Information-processing spending has jumped 51% since early 2021 while residential investment has fallen 18%.

TUBERVILLE DEMANDS FOUR-YEAR RATE FREEZE
AL.com
Tommy Tuberville wants Alabama electricity rates frozen through 2030 as data-center demand grows. Rates are set by the elected Public Service Commission, so a governor could not impose the freeze alone.

DEMOCRATS BET ON RURAL DATA-CENTER BACKLASH
Reuters
Sherrod Brown is making data centers an issue in his Ohio Senate rematch with Jon Husted. In Defiance, where no project has been announced, voters will decide November 3 whether to ban most data centers.

SHERRILL LEAVES DATA-CENTER CALLS TO TOWNS
POLITICO
Mikie Sherrill opposes a statewide freeze and says New Jersey towns should decide whether to stop projects. Lawmakers have filed more than a dozen bills, including one introduced last week that would pause data centers over 10 MW for six months.

THE NUCLEAR BET MOVES UPSTREAM
The Wall Street Journal
The Journal points investors toward nuclear-fuel suppliers instead of more speculative reactor developers. Centrus holds a $900 million DOE contract to expand HALEU production in Ohio, with options that could lift the value to $1.07 billion.

Power & Grid

765-KV LINES UNITE WISCONSIN'S PARTIES
Wisconsin Public Radio
David Crowley and Tom Tiffany oppose the 190-mile BECI line while Reps. Derrick Van Orden and Mark Pocan want more review time. MariBell would follow an existing Mississippi River corridor, but both 765-kV projects still need state approval.

MICHIGAN RACE TURNS ON UTILITY MONEY
Detroit Free Press
Jocelyn Benson and John James both promise lower bills while fighting over DTE and Consumers Energy money. Utility PACs gave $38,500 to James-linked federal accounts and $10,000 to Benson's past secretary-of-state campaigns.

DOE EMERGENCY ORDER COVERS CAROLINAS GRID
U.S. Department of Energy
Duke Energy could dispatch specified resources and call on backup generation as a last resort through today, when the order expires. DOE cited late-summer heat and says more than 35 GW of unused backup generation remains available nationwide.

40 GAS UNITS TO POWER WEST TEXAS DATA CENTER
Investing.com
Kodiak signed a six-year deal for 76 MW of behind-the-meter baseload power at an undisclosed West Texas site. Roughly 40 gas-fired units will begin deployment late this year, with revenue expected in early 2027.

DOE ORDERS 951 MW OF INDIANA COAL TO STAY
Indianapolis Business Journal
DOE extended emergency orders for two units at NIPSCO's Schahfer plant and one at CenterPoint's Culley station through December 18. The three units total 951 MW, although Schahfer's units remain offline for turbine and boiler work.

Data Centers

VIRGINIA FRAMEWORK FAILS TO QUIET CRITICS
WRIC
Abigail Spanberger's plan would ban state-agency nondisclosure agreements with developers and speed up noise rules. Critics say it leaves hundreds of projects with approvals untouched, while several major provisions still need legislative action in January.

GOVERNOR CANDIDATES CLAIM THE AI RULEBOOK
POLITICO
Texas Democrat Gina Hinojosa and Wisconsin Democrat David Crowley are among the candidates arguing states cannot wait for Washington on AI. POLITICO contacted 18 candidates, and nearly all eight who answered wanted states to lead.

THE NEXT DATA CENTERS DOUBLE DOWN ON POWER
Axios
New facilities can consume twice the electricity of their predecessors, and planned campuses push the ceiling higher. Data centers are expected to account for roughly half of the 420-TWh increase in U.S. electricity demand through 2030.

BROWN'S DATA-CENTER ATTACK MEETS GOOGLE MONEY
Fox News
Sherrod Brown's September 4 ad blames Jon Husted for higher bills and features Google's Lancaster campus, which opened in 2023. Google's PAC gave Brown $20,000, and five company lobbyists contributed another $19,700.

DATA CENTERS PULL CASH INTO CLIMATE TECH
Semafor
Global climate-tech venture investment reached $26 billion in the first half, up 55% from a year earlier. AI demand is drawing Big Tech and Wall Street money into power, cooling and grid startups.

Stat of the Day

$752B

Inflation-adjusted U.S. spending on information-processing equipment in the second quarter
It edged past the $748 billion spent on residential investment, which sits 18% below its 2021 peak.
Fortune ↗