紐時賞析／美高電價引發民怨 川普要科技業多分攤

Trump Seeks Pledge On Electricity Costs From Tech Companies

美高電價引發民怨 川普要科技業多分攤

In a nod to voter frustration over rising electricity prices, President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was negotiating pledges from major tech companies to pay a greater share of the energy costs associated with new data centers.

為回應選民對電價上漲的不滿，美國總統川普周二表示正與大型科技業者協商，要求其承擔新資料中心相關能源成本的更大占比。

Silicon Valley is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build power-hungry data centers for artificial intelligence as demand for electricity is increasing across the United States. That has led to widespread fears that the AI boom could cause utility bills to spike for ordinary households.

矽谷正投入數千億美元興建高耗電的人工智慧資料中心，全美電力需求持續攀升。外界擔憂，AI熱潮可能推高一般家庭的電費帳單。

Trump’s announcement during his State of the Union speech was light on details, and experts said that any promises by tech companies to pay more for their electricity could be difficult to verify or enforce in practice. Yet the move underscored the extent to which White House officials and Republicans have worried that rising electricity prices could hurt them in the midterm elections this year.

川普在國情咨文中的宣布沒有太多細節。專家指出，科技業者即使承諾支付更高電價，實務上恐難查核或執行。不過，此舉顯示白宮與共和黨高度憂慮電價上漲恐衝擊今年期中選舉選情。

“We’re telling the major tech companies they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs and can build their own power plants so no one’s prices will go up,” Trump said. He called it a “ratepayer protection pledge.”

川普表示：「我們告訴大型科技公司，他們有義務自行解決用電需求，可以自建發電廠，這樣就可避免任何人的電價上漲。」他稱之為「電費負擔保護承諾」。

Rising electricity rates have become a volatile political issue in many parts of the country. Over the past six years, the average retail price of electricity has risen faster than inflation in roughly two dozen states.

電價上漲已成為全美多地的敏感政治議題。過去6年，20幾個州的平均零售電價漲幅高於通膨率。

Data centers being built today can use as much power as a small city, and they often require large new transmission lines, power plants and other costly upgrades before they can be connected to the local electric grid. Historically, utilities have spread those upgrade costs — which can reach billions of dollars — among all customers in their regions.

目前興建的資料中心用電量可媲美小型城市，通常需要新增大型輸電線路、發電廠及其他昂貴工程才能併入當地電網。過去，這些可能高達數十億美元的成本，電力公司多由全體用戶分攤。

But politicians are increasingly calling on tech giants to foot most or all of the bill for these upgrades. In recent weeks, both Microsoft and Anthropic have publicly pledged to pay higher electricity rates to cover their costs.

不過，政界人士愈來愈要求科技巨擘負擔大部分甚至全部的升級費用。過去幾周，微軟與Anthropic已公開承諾支付較高電價，以承擔自身成本。

“We absolutely want to pay our fair share of all costs associated with serving us,” Briana Kobor, head of energy market innovation at Google, told a recent gathering of utility regulators in Washington.

Google能源市場創新主管布莉安娜．科博在華府一場公用事業監管人會議上稱：「我們絕對願意支付與服務我們相關的合理成本。」

Some environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers criticized the pledges as largely symbolic and noted that other Trump administration actions to throttle wind and solar power could drive up energy costs.

部分環保團體與民主黨議員批評這些承諾象徵性質居多，並指出川普政府打壓風電與太陽能發展的其他政策，可能反而推升能源成本。

文／Brad Plumer，譯／國際中心

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張佑生

AI無所不在，資料中心(data center)不可或缺，但是很吃電(power-hungry)，但電力不是發電問題，而是「併網容量」問題，涉及large new transmission lines，升級所費不貲(costly upgrades)。問題是，誰來埋單(foot the bill)？Spike有短時間內飆升的意思：Oil and gas prices have spiked (upward) again.

川普在國情咨文的發言並未詳談如何落實(light on details)，但姿態要先擺出來，否則年底期中選舉結果恐不樂觀。環團更質疑川普和科技業者承諾配合表態成分居多(largely symbolic)，證明之一是川普扼殺風電和太陽能，對於平抑電價可能適得其反。Throttle有「卡脖子」的意思，常用來比喻扼殺、壓制。

知名小說家Stephen Crane代表作The Red Badge of Courage「鐵血雄師」寫道："…to seize and throttle the dark, leering witch of calamity.”主角亨利．弗萊明是南北戰爭的年輕士兵，這句話出現在他想像自己能夠克服恐懼，把「災難」擬人化為一個「陰暗、冷笑的女巫」，他要「抓住並扼殺這個女巫」，壓制恐懼、戰勝厄運，從而證明自己的勇氣。