by Derek Seidman | Nov 11, 2025 | BlackRock, Climate Change, Climate Crisis, data centers, electricity, Minnesota, News Analysis, Private Equity, public utilities
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…
Source
by Adam Mahoney | Nov 2, 2025 | AI, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence, big tech, Climate Crisis, data centers, Environmental Racism, Google, Meta, Microsoft, News, Racial Justice
When word spread through Bessemer, Alabama, earlier this year that a tech giant was eyeing hundreds of pine-covered acres at the city’s edge, Benard Simelton’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing. The longtime NAACP leader had fielded calls about toxic air and shuttered steel mills before, but this, he said, was new to him. At first, the renderings looked like progress for the majority-Black town…
Source
