In 2022 the Washington State Legislature took up an expansion of the state tax breaks for data centers. A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, including State Senator Matt Boehke, added $400,000 to the legislation to study data center power usage in Washington and how the tax breaks impacted the power grid, according to a recent article in ProPublica, co-published with The Seattle Times.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee vetoed the data collection provision, and his office justified the decision by saying that the Northwest Power and Conservation Council was already doing the work, ProPublica/the Seattle Times reported.
In a recent telephone interview with the Observer, Boehnke said without reliable data on the amount of power data centers use, the state could be headed to an energy “train wreck” once the massive power requirements for artificial intelligence (AI) are added to the mix.
Boehnke, who co-wrote the study provision, told ProPublica/Times that he was shocked when Inslee vetoed the power usage study in the tax break extension bill.
When the Observer asked Boehnke if he had obtained the data he and other legislators sought, he answered, “no.”
Boehnke said the agencies and organizations contacted pointed to someone else who had the data, but no one did.
Boehnke said he and other legislators plan to request funding for the information again during the next legislative session in January. By that time, there will also be a new governor.
“We need to go after this data,” Boehnke told the Observer.