America's digital economy is barreling toward a wall of aging wire and wasted priority: the power grid that sustains it is decades past modernization, consumers are already paying the price, and Washington keeps writing checks overseas while the home front corrodes.

The stakes are straightforward. The U.S. hosts more than 4,400 data centers — more than Germany, the U.K., France, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, China, and Japan combined, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Data centers consumed 4% of all U.S. electricity in 2023 and are projected to gulp down as much as 12% by 2028. In raw kilowatts, that's a jump from 176 billion in 2023 to an estimated 580 billion in 2028 — roughly equivalent to powering 16 million homes. The digital economy runs on electricity, and the electricity runs on a grid that is mostly over 25 years old.

Upgrading that grid will cost roughly $10 billion annually for decades. Government will cover some of it, but most of the tab lands on ratepayers. Electricity costs are already outpacing gasoline, heating oil, natural gas, and even the consumer price index. The Press Democrat's commentary framed this as a case for diversifying into renewables — and sure, solar proved its worth during 2024's summer heat spikes — but the core problem isn't the fuel mix. It's neglect. Sixty percent of 2023's electricity still came from fossil fuels, and no amount of green mandates fixes transmission lines built when Reagan was president.

Meanwhile, the Kalispell Inter Lake reported that the states seeing real wage growth — Montana, Idaho, Wyoming — are the ones embracing limited regulation and tax relief. Montana's average hourly wage climbed from $27.96 in 2024 to $29.27 in 2025, second-highest growth nationally. Idaho hit third. In those states, $100 stretches to $111 or $114 in real purchasing power outside the metros. Contrast that with Washington, where the average wage looks fat at $40.14 but $100 in Seattle buys just $88.50 worth of goods. The Inter Lake pinned the gap on policy — Washington's $17.13 state minimum and Seattle's $21.30 floor jack up costs across the board, creating what the outlet called "the illusion that pay is good."

Here's where the two stories collide. Businesses like semiconductor manufacturer Eshylon Scientific are fleeing California for Bozeman. Micron is reinvesting in Idaho. The Boise metro has added 8 million square feet of industrial space since 2022. These are the industries of the future — and they need reliable, affordable power. The mountain states winning the wage race will hit the same grid ceiling if the infrastructure isn't there to support them.

The Press Democrat noted the grid weathered 2024's heat, barely, thanks to solar surges on peak days. That's not a strategy. That's luck. And every year Washington ships another nine-figure package to Kyiv or Tel Aviv or wherever the lobbying class directs the spigot next, that's $10 billion a year not going into the wires under your feet.

The question neither outlet asked: if the federal government can find billions for foreign aid on demand, why are American ratepayers absorbing persistent electricity hikes to prop up a grid that nobody in D.C. bothered to maintain?