With $1 million in initial funding, Google is launching a fund to help modernize and improve Ohio's electric grid. The fund is part of the company's efforts to foster new technologies to meet growing energy demands in Ohio and comes as Google itself increases its presence throughout the Buckeye State.

Among them are whether the state is giving up too much in tax revenue for the number of jobs they’ll create, who will pay to add electricity generation to meet the centers’ surging demand, and whether the new demand will force fossil-fuel burning generators to stay online, making the world’s climate crisis worse.

Ohio is giving tech companies generous tax breaks, often amounting to millions more than the corporations are planning to invest toward Ohio workers. Ohio’s “Silicon Heartland” has brought in billions of dollars in investments from major names in the tech industry,

Ohio Consumers' Counsel attorney Bill Michael's line of questioning on Tuesday suggested companies like Amazon, Meta and Microsoft can afford to pay their fair share, when it comes to purchasing electricity.

He emphasized the urgency of the matter, noting that data centers are enormous electricity consumers, potentially driving up utility costs for Ohio residents and businesses while posing challenges to climate change mitigation efforts.

AEP is investing more in its systems nearly three years after widespread power outages impacted hundreds of thousands of Ohio customers.

The company said its Columbus plant could eventually produce tens of thousands of autonomous systems and weapons each year.