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Evergreen Collaborative urges states to cut bills: data centers, fossil markets and climate strain driving costs
Summary
Lina Moffitt of the Evergreen Collaborative outlined a 30‑point state roadmap to lower electricity, housing and transportation costs, cited three drivers of higher bills — data centers, oil/gas markets and climate change — and said clean energy and targeted policies could save households roughly $300 a year in early modeling for states like New York.
Lina Moffitt, executive director of the Evergreen Collaborative, told BronxNet viewers that states have a menu of actions they can take to rein in rising household costs tied to energy, housing and transportation.
Moffitt said three factors are driving recent increases: data centers that place new burdens on the grid, global oil and gas market volatility and climate‑driven demand shocks. “These facilities use so much energy, and when they are allowed to pass their costs onto rate payers like you and me and grandma, it's raising prices for everybody,” she said. She added that wind, solar and battery storage are now among the cheapest ways to generate electricity and urged faster permitting and policies that require large users to pay for grid upgrades.
The Evergreen Collaborative released a 30‑item affordability roadmap the segment said could deliver immediate consumer savings if states adopt a subset of the recommendations — the group's modeling estimated more than $300 in annual savings for ratepayers in the first year in states like New York if a handful of policies are implemented. Moffitt pointed to examples in Michigan and New Jersey where permitting reforms and bills holding data centers responsible for grid costs have been adopted.
The interview mixed technical proposals and practical advice for households; Moffitt recommended home energy audits and efficiency retrofits as immediate steps viewers can pursue while broader state policy shifts are considered.
