Artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency may be the shiny new frontier of technology, but behind the hype lies a brutal truth: they are devouring electricity, straining Pennsylvania\u2019s grid and driving up costs for everyone else. And thanks to PJM\u2019s policies, it\u2019s the smallest consumers \u2014 the homeowners, the corner bakeries, the family-run machine shops \u2014 who are paying the price, while the biggest corporate power users get a sweetheart deal.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the injustice in plain sight: the same wire that carries electricity to a sprawling AI data center or a crypto-mining farm also serves thousands of small businesses and homes. Yet the AI operator pays just $0.06 to $0.08 per kilowatt-hour, while the local coffee shop or working family pays $0.17 to $0.22 for the exact same electricity. How is that remotely fair? For five years straight, small consumers in Pennsylvania have endured 15% annual rate hikes, while massive power users are shielded from the true cost of their enormous demand.<\/p>\n
And just when the little guy needed a lifeline, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) yanked it away. Before this bill, a homeowner or small business could fight back by installing solar panels, offsetting nearly 100% of their usage and shielding themselves from these corporate-driven rate hikes. But OBBBA gutted those very incentives \u2014 eliminating the only real defense ordinary people had.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the big players keep winning. Mega-corporations like Tesla, SunRun and Vivint don\u2019t even use the same solar tax code as small businesses. While 85% of solar companies \u2014 the small, local ones that create local jobs \u2014 depend on Section 25D, OBBBA ends that credit in 2025. After that, if you\u2019re a homeowner, you have no choice but to buy from those giant corporations, leaving small businesses bankrupt and consumers trapped. It is, quite simply, the most anti-small business, un-American energy policy this country has ever seen.<\/p>\n
And the hypocrisy doesn\u2019t stop there. OBBBA claimed to cut solar incentives to \u201creduce government spending\u201d \u2014 but in the same breath, it increased subsidies for oil, gas and coal to $35 billion per year. Subsidies that have been flowing since 1926. Why does an industry that\u2019s been around for over a century still need government handouts? In America, it seems if you have enough money to buy politicians, you can also buy subsidies and policy.<\/p>\n
Some say solar can\u2019t power AI or crypto because their demands are too big. Maybe. Maybe not. But that\u2019s not the point. Solar can power a home, a bakery, a church, a small factory, a school. It can protect ordinary people from being forced to subsidize the power-hungry profits of hedge funds and tech giants.<\/p>\n
If Pennsylvania doesn\u2019t fix PJM\u2019s broken subsidies and restore small-scale solar incentives, we\u2019re condemning everyday consumers to carry the water for big business \u2014 again. This is a fight between David and Goliath, and right now, the laws are written so Goliath always wins. It\u2019s time to demand a fair system that protects the people who keep our communities alive, not the corporations driving our rates through the roof.<\/p>\n