Data centers.

They bring jobs and investment, but they also need lots of energy and water.

Now, leaders of Kentucky's energy planning and inventory Commission, or Epic for short, say they have a plan for attracting data centers in a way that will protect Kentuckians from soaring electricity prices.

Here's a breakdown from Kentucky edition.

Clayton.

Dalton.

Communities across the state are being met with data center proposals, and some locals are asking questions about the implications these projects could have on the environment and their utility bills.

Epic Commission leader Eric King said today's report is about planning and strategy, not a commentary on whether Kentucky should recruit data centers.

The report begins with a simple question how can Kentucky accommodate large new energy loads while maintaining reliability and affordability?

What we found is that Kentucky is in a unique position.

What we we have affordable electricity.

We have available land.

We have a very strong industrial base, and companies are taking notice around the country.

But this report is not about whether Kentucky should recruit data centers.

That is a decision.

Local officials and local communities, economic developers will make themselves.

This report is about what Kentucky needs to understand if these projects move forward.

A central finding in the report is that Kentucky needs to have rules that assign costs to developers before data center infrastructure is built, to ensure Kentucky ratepayers don't bear the costs of these projects.

This report also reinforces a simple principle.

Economic development and ratepayer protection are not mutually exclusive.

Kentucky can pursue both.

Kentuckians deserve confidence that growth can occur while existing customers remain protected.

Communities deserve clear information before decisions are made, and policymakers deserve objective, independent analysis as they evaluate the opportunities and challenges ahead.

This report is not intended to be the final word on data centers.

The Kentucky General Assembly did not act on a data center bill in the 2026 session.

State Senator Rob Mills said there's more to learn before taking legislative action.

I don't think there's a need for all 138 legislators to take this report, digest it.

Start asking questions.

Ask questions of their county judges, local government officials that are grappling with this issue.

I think January, we're going to be in much better position to look at this and say, do we need to weigh in on this or are utilities, protecting the ratepayers enough to where we don't have to weigh in on it?

State Representative Adam Moore said he thinks the legislature should have acted.

I actually filed legislation last year myself, called it the Kentucky Ratepayer Protection Act.

We got one version of it through the house, but we didn't get it passed into law.

I think that's one of the two big failures of us.

Number one, we didn't pass a good big housing bill, and we didn't pass a data center bill because there are no guardrails right now.

It's essentially the Wild West, where again, there's all these indianas and communities are fearful because they don't know who's putting bids in and offers in on these lands, and they can't get that information.

Governor Andy Beshear said he would not let a data center come to Kentucky if it passed along the cost of energy to the people of that region.

Mills said he agreed.

I think that the intent is to protect ratepayers, and I think it's important to to look and see who legislators are here, the folks from eastern Kentucky that are battling higher electric prices, that's top of their agenda, if you ask every one of them.

And I think that's what the whole goal here is, we need to understand the issue.

We don't want to push away economic development.

It can coexist together.

How do we do this best for Kentucky and for the residents?

For Kentucky edition, I'm Clayton Dalton.