The Moralist

Decency still matters

Tech Giants Abandon the Shared National Power Grid #

Friday, 17 April 2026 · words

Seventeen gigawatts of private energy capacity have been secured by firms like Meta and Fermi America, marking a quiet but definitive secession from the American public. These technological monopolies are building their own natural gas microgrids, decoupling their vast AI compute needs from the aging infrastructure that serves the working class. While families face rising utility costs and the threat of blackouts, the elite are ensuring their own sovereignty by effectively unplugging from the common good. This corporate energy secession is a betrayal of the civic covenant, where those with the most resources choose to exit the shared system rather than help maintain it. The tech giants are not just building data centers; they are building private citadels, leaving the rest of the nation to shoulder the burden of a decaying and overstrained grid. This shift toward logistical sovereignty mirrors the hollowing out of other public institutions, where the wealthy no longer feel a duty to the land or the people they profit from. By establishing their own private energy baselines, these companies are creating a new form of feudalism, where the light stays on for the few while the many are left in the cold.