By MARC LEVY

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The forecasts are eye-popping: utilities saying they’ll need two or three times more electricity within a few years to power massive new data centers that are feeding a fast-growing AI economy.

But the challenges — some say the impossibility — of building new power plants to meet that demand so quickly has set off alarm bells for lawmakers, policymakers and regulators who wonder if those utility forecasts can be trusted.

One burning question is whether the forecasts are based on data center projects that may never get built — eliciting concern that regular ratepayers could be stuck with the bill to build unnecessary power plants and grid infrastructure at a cost of billions of dollars.

The scrutiny comes as analysts warn of the risk of an artificial intelligence investment bubble that’s ballooned tech stock prices and could burst.

Meanwhile, consumer advocates are finding that ratepayers in some areas — such as the mid-Atlantic electricity grid, which encompasses all or parts of 13 states stretching from New Jersey to Illinois, as well as Washington, D.C. — are already underwriting the cost to supply power to data centers, some of them built, some not.

“There’s speculation in there,” said Joe Bowring, who heads Monitoring Analytics, the independent market watchdog in the mid-Atlantic grid territory. “Nobody really knows. Nobody has been looking carefully enough at the forecast to know what’s speculative, what’s double-counting, what’s real, what’s not.”

Suspicions about skyrocketing demand

There is no standard practice across grids or for utilities to vet such massive projects, and figuring out a solution has become a hot topic, utilities and grid operators say.

Uncertainty around forecasts is typically traced to a couple of things.

One concerns developers seeking a grid connection, but whose plans aren’t set in stone or lack the heft — clients, financing or otherwise — to bring the project to completion, industry and regulatory officials say.

Another is data center developers submitting grid connection requests in various separate utility territories, PJM Interconnection, which operates the mid-Atlantic grid, and Texas lawmakers have found.

FILE- An entrance to the Stargate artificial intelligence data center complex in Abilene, Texas on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt O’Brien, File)

Often, developers, for competitive reasons, won’t tell utilities if or where they’ve submitted other requests for electricity, PJM said. That means a single project could inflate the energy forecasts of multiple utilities.

The effort to improve forecasts got a high-profile boost in September, when a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member asked the nation’s grid operators for information on how they determine that a project is not only viable, but will use the electricity it says it needs.

“Better data, better decision-making, better and faster decisions mean we can get all these projects, all this infrastructure built,” the commissioner, David Rosner, said in an interview.

The Edison Electric Institute, a trade association of for-profit electric utilities, said it welcomed efforts to improve demand forecasting.

Real, speculative, or ‘somewhere in between’

The Data Center Coalition, which represents tech giants like Google and Meta and data center developers, has urged regulators to request more information from utilities on their forecasts and to develop a set of best practices to determine the commercial viability of a data center project.

The coalition’s vice president of energy, Aaron Tinjum, said improving the accuracy and transparency of forecasts is a “fundamental first step of really meeting this moment” of energy growth.

“Wherever we go, the question is, ‘Is the (energy) growth real? How can we be so sure?’” Tinjum said. “And we really view commercial readiness verification as one of those important kind of low-hanging opportunities for us to be adopting at this moment.”

Igal Feibush, the CEO of Pennsylvania Data Center Partners, a data center developer, said utilities are in a “fire drill” as they try to vet a deluge of data center projects all seeking electricity.

The vast majority, he said, will fall off because many project backers are new to the concept and don’t know what it takes to get a data center built.

States also are trying to do more to find out what’s in utility forecasts and weed out speculative or duplicative projects.

In Texas, which is attracting large data center projects, lawmakers still haunted by a blackout during a deadly 2021 winter storm were shocked when told in 2024 by the grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, that its peak demand could nearly double by 2030.

They found that state utility regulators lacked the tools to determine whether that was realistic.

Texas state Sen. Phil King told a hearing earlier this year that the grid operator, utility regulators and utilities weren’t sure if the power requests “are real or just speculative or somewhere in between.”

Lawmakers passed legislation sponsored by King, now law, that requires data center developers to disclose whether they have requests for electricity elsewhere in Texas and to set standards for developers to show that they have a substantial financial commitment to a site.

Electricity bills are rising, too

PPL Electric Utilities, which delivers power to 1.5 million customers across central and eastern Pennsylvania, projects that data centers will more than triple its peak electricity demand by 2030.

Vincent Sorgi, president and CEO of PPL Corp., told analysts on an earnings call this month that the data center projects “are real, they are coming fast and furious” and that the “near-term risk of overbuilding generation simply does not exist.”

The data center projects counted in the forecast are backed by contracts with financial commitments often reaching tens of millions of dollars, PPL said.

Still, PPL’s projections helped spur a state lawmaker, Rep. Danilo Burgos, to introduce a bill to bolster the authority of state utility regulators to inspect how utilities assemble their energy demand forecasts.

Ratepayers in Burgos’ Philadelphia district just absorbed an increase in their electricity bills — attributed by the utility, PECO, to the rising cost of wholesale electricity in the mid-Atlantic grid driven primarily by data center demand.

That’s why ratepayers need more protection to ensure they are benefiting from the higher cost, Burgos said.

“Once they make their buck, whatever company,” Burgos said, “you don’t see no empathy towards the ratepayers.”

Follow Marc Levy at http://twitter.com/timelywriter.

Two young pop acts currently nominated for the best new artist Grammy Award — Alex Warren and Olivia Dean — will make their local arena debuts next summer.

Warren will play St. Paul’s Grand Casino Arena on July 2, with Dean following July 29 at Target Center in downtown Minneapolis. Tickets for both shows go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through Ticketmaster.

Warren, 25, got his start online via TikTok and YouTube and began self-releasing his music in 2021. He signed to Atlantic the following year. He went on to release a series of singles that didn’t gain much traction. But that began to change after he starred in the Netflix reality series “Hype House.”

His 2024 single “Before You Leave Me” was his first hit and went gold. Fueled by his online following, Warren’s subsequent singles found similar success. He broke through to the mainstream in a massive way this year with “Ordinary,” which spent 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and hit No. 1 in more than 30 countries around the world.

Olivia Dean

Dean, 26, was born in London to a Jamaican-Guyanese mother and an English father. In grade school, she performed “Tomorrow” from the musical “Annie” at a talent show and, despite crying due to stage fright, placed second. She went on to attend the prestigious BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology where she studied songwriting.

Olivia Dean performs during weekend two of the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, at Zilker Metropolitan Park in Austin, Texas. (Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP)

While still a teen, Dean landed a gig singing backup vocals for the British drum and bass group Rudimental, which led her to self-release music and secure a contract with an EMI subsidiary. Her 2023 debut album “Messy” made some waves abroad, but Dean didn’t land a hit in the U.S. until this year’s “Man I Need.” She has said it’s “a song about knowing how you deserve to be loved and not being afraid to ask for it. It’s forward, sexy, fun. It’s made for dancing.”

Dean made her “Saturday Night Live” debut on this weekend’s episode, hosted by actor Glen Powell.

Warren and Dean are competing with the Marías, Addison Rae, Sombr, Leon Thomas and Lola Young for best new artist at the 68th annual Grammy Awards, which will take place Feb. 1 in Los Angeles.

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By REGINA GARCIA CANO and AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday did not rule out military action against Venezuela despite bringing up a potential diplomatic opening with leader Nicolás Maduro, who has insisted that a U.S. military buildup and strikes on alleged drug boats near his South American country are designed to push him out of office.

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Trump reiterated that he “probably would talk to” Maduro, but underscored that he is not taking off the table the possibility of military action on Venezuelan territory.

“I don’t rule out that. I don’t rule out anything,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office a day after he first floated the possibility of having “discussions” with Maduro. Trump, however, sidestepped questions about whether Maduro could say anything to him that would lead to the U.S. backing off its military show of force.

“He’s done tremendous damage to our country,” said Trump, tying Maduro to drugs and migrants coming into the U.S. from Venezuela. “He has not been good to the United States, so we’ll see what happens.”

The comments deepened the uncertainty about the Trump administration’s next steps toward Maduro’s government. The U.S. has ratcheted up the pressure in recent days, saying it was expecting to designate as a terrorist organization a cartel it says is led by Maduro and other high-level Venezuelan government officials.

The USS Gerald R. Ford and accompanying warships arrived in the Caribbean this weekend just as the U.S. military announced its latest in a series of strikes against vessels suspected of transporting drugs.

‘Can turn policy on a dime’

The administration says its actions are a counterdrug operation meant to stop narcotics from flowing to American cities, but some analysts, Venezuelans and the country’s political opposition see them as an escalating pressure tactic against Maduro.

The Trump administration has shown it “can turn policy on a dime,” said Geoff Ramsey, an expert on U.S. policy toward Venezuela who is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. He pointed to the diplomatic talks the administration held with Iran “right up until the point” that the U.S. military targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities in June.

But, Ramsey added, the timing of Trump’s remarks — after Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement of the impending terrorist designation of the Cartel de los Soles — underscores that the administration does not want to repeat failed attempts at dialogue.

“They really want to negotiate from a place of strength, and I think the White House is laying out an ultimatum for Maduro,” Ramsey said. “Either he engages in credible talks about a transition, or the U.S. will have no choice but to escalate.”

Maduro has negotiated with the U.S. and Venezuela’s political opposition for several years, most notably in the two years before the July 2024 presidential election. Those negotiations resulted in agreements meant to pave the way for a free and democratic election, but Maduro repeatedly tested their limits, ultimately claiming victory despite credible evidence that he lost the contest by a 2-to-1 margin.

Among the concessions the U.S. made to Maduro during negotiations was approval for oil giant Chevron Corp. to resume pumping and exporting Venezuelan oil. The corporation’s activities in the South American country resulted in a financial lifeline for Maduro’s government.

Neither Maduro nor his chief negotiator, National Assembly president Jorge Rodriguez, commented Monday on Trump’s remarks. A spokesperson for Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado told reporters Monday that she would not comment on Trump’s remarks.

Trump also talks about Mexico

Trump didn’t even rule out possible military action against close allies in the region.

“Would I want strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? OK with me, whatever we have to do to stop drugs,” Trump said, adding that he’s “not happy with Mexico.”

Trump said the U.S. government has drug corridors from Mexico “under major surveillance” and said he would also like to target Colombia’s “cocaine factories.”

“Would I knock out those factories? I would be proud to do it personally. I didn’t say I’m doing it — but I would be proud to do it,” he said.

Skepticism and hope in Venezuela about possible talks

Trump’s goal on Venezuela remains unclear, but above all, Ramsey said, the president “is looking for a win.”

“And he may be flexible on exactly what that looks like,” Ramsey said. “I could envision the U.S. pushing for greater control over Venezuela’s natural resources, including oil, as well as greater cooperation with the president’s migration and security goals.”

In Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, people responded with skepticism and hope to the possibility of a new dialogue between the U.S. and Maduro, whose government has fueled rumors of a ground invasion despite the Trump administration giving little clear indication of such a plan.

“If (the dialogue) actually happens, I hope the government will actually follow through this time,” shopkeeper Gustavo García, 38, said as he left church. “We have to be serious. They’ve gotten us used to them talking, but they don’t honor the agreements. You don’t mess with Trump.”

Stay-at-home mother Mery Martínez, 41, said, “Talking is always better.”

“Anything that helps prevent a tragedy is good,” Martínez said. “Venezuelans don’t deserve this. A war benefits no one.”

Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela. Associated Press writer Jorge Rueda in Caracas contributed to this report.

WALKER, Minn. — A sheriff’s deputy was injured and a suspect was killed in a Sunday afternoon gunfight near Walker, according to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office in north-central Minnesota.

Sheriff Bryan Welk said that at 4:37 p.m. Sunday, dispatchers received a 911 reporting gunfire near residences in the area of Old Agency Drive and Onigum Road Northwest (County Road 13) in Turtle Lake Township.

Shortly after arriving at the scene, deputies attempted to make contact with a male subject who was walking in the 8000 block of Onigum.

The subject ran from deputies and a foot pursuit ensued. There was then an exchange of gunfire.

A deputy was shot and transported via helicopter to a Fargo, N.D., hospital. The subject was pronounced dead at the scene.

On Monday, the sheriff’s office said that the deputy was released after being treated for a gunshot injury to an upper right leg.

Body-worn cameras were used and active, according to authorities. Deputies involved in the incident were placed on standard paid administrative leave during the investigation.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension responded and is handling the investigation.

No other information, including the identities of the deputy and the male subject, were immediately released.

Last week, a man was fatally shot during an altercation and ensuing highway pursuit with law enforcement in the northwestern Minnesota community of Bagley. One Clearwater County sheriff’s deputy suffered a minor injury during the incident.

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