Three senators warned this week that the purchase of electric utilities by two of the largest global asset management companies could lead to electricity price increases.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) requested information from asset managers BlackRock and Blackstone about their recent utility acquisitions and their plans for rate management.
The three are worried that BlackRock and Blackstone plan to take advantage of the artificial intelligence boom to raise electric costs.
“Investors have typically viewed utility companies as reliable investments with a guaranteed rate of return. But now, amidst rapidly rising energy use from AI data centers and other strains on the grid, Wall Street investors and private equity firms appear to be taking advantage of utilities’ regulated-monopoly status to rake in excess profits,” the senators wrote.
