Data Centers Devour Electricity. Private Equity Is Buying Utilities to Cash In. :The seizure of public utilities for the sake of profit may lead to a disaster for consumers — and the planet.

“The approval of this deal sends a signal that our critical infrastructure is now up for sale to the highest bidder,” said Schafer.

JUST a snippet:

• Ratepayers across the U.S. are facing rising electric bills — a trend that could be turbocharged by Wall Street’s growing effort to capture the electric utilities we all depend on.
• A critical turning point in this development occurred in October when Minnesota state regulators greenlit the acquisition of Allete by asset management behemoth BlackRock — set to become Allete’s majority stakeholder — and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Allete owns Minnesota Power, the main electric utility in northern Minnesota.
• The approval came against significant community opposition and, as Truthout previously reported, an administrative law judge’s report that strongly recommended against the deal.
• With the acquisition, BlackRock will turn Allete from a publicly traded company into a private one. Moreover, BlackRock is now gunning for utility giant AES, which has utilities in Ohio and Indiana along with other extensive U.S. and international operations, while another private equity titan, Blackstone, is seeking approval to acquire TXNM Energy, with hundreds of thousands of customers in New Mexico and Texas.
• Private equity’s escalating run on utilities is largely driven by the boom in data centers — massive consumers of electricity — and the guaranteed rates of return that utilities offer.
• Critics of the buyouts say this is a deeply alarming trend, as firms like BlackRock and Blackstone will likely impose a private equity model — opaque, extractive, laser-focused on profit — over basic services.
• Even well-intentioned state regulators, opponents contend, will be no match for these massively-resourced companies as they look to bulldoze through any obstacles toward enriching their wealthy investors.
• Alissa Jean Schafer, climate director at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, said the Allete deal’s approval was “precedent-setting” for private equity’s growing incursion into utilities.