Hey Reddit! I'm Kenneth Russell DeGraff, former Senior Policy Advisor for Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I spent nearly two decades in Congress crafting climate and tech legislation, and working across the aisle to build bi-partisan support, including playing a key role in crafting the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and CHIPS and Science Act, and lots more. Now I'm watching a new challenge that could undermine everything we worked to achieve: the massive energy footprint of artificial intelligence.
I'll be here to talk about data centers, what concerned citizens should know about the hidden costs of AI, and what actions Congress should take to regulate the technology.
AMA starting Monday 8/25 at 5 pm ET / 2 pm PT! I'll be around until at least 7p/4p.
My paper outlines how we can maintain our strategic AI advantage while building the social infrastructure that ensures benefits flow to everyone, not just those holding the knowledge and wealth. That means bending states, Congress, and agencies toward serving people, not just the powerful. We can have both innovation and shared prosperity, but only if we're intentional about the structures we build now.
Proof: I had one of the "best staff Twitter accounts on Capitol Hill" and a "key role in crafting climate policy." I helped Girl Talk, DJ Drama and Congressman Mike Doyle explode into every music magazine and blog at the time, called "The Coolest Moment in the History of Congress and Why it Matters" and Out Magazine named me to their annual Out 100. I've been a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, where I have a new paper on these topics, Stanford Law - Center for Internet and Society and the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator.
Photos for Verification and of Speaker Pelosi and I.
ADDENDUM: Quick explanation: I accidentally posted this live instead of scheduling for next week when fixing a rejected link. My bad. I'm here now off and on until Monday.
Look, I know what I walked into - what one called a "viper pit", you don't think I've lived my life the last 15 years? My full response on stock trading and why I never traded individual stocks.
That's why I'm on Reddit worrying about families getting screwed by utility bills instead of on a yacht. I'm turning down seven-figure lobbying jobs to expose how these systems work. No revolving door for me. Instead I document how your bill's going up $300+ yearly while utilities earn guaranteed returns nearly double their market cost, and how and where data centers get sweetheart deals -- and what we can do to fix it.
For those saying I wasted 20 years - here's what I worked on. While there was ALWAYS more that needed to be done, I'm proud of my unique contributions to the IRA which the UN called the most important climate law in history, and the bipartisan Energy Act that'll keep the planet 2 degrees cooler, and what should’ve been called the CHIPS and Competitiveness Act. Plus, my work on autism that still helps families today.
That same drive to help vulnerable people is why I'm furious at watching Republicans in Congress hand our future to corporations while families can't afford their electric bills.
TOP EXCHANGES FROM THE THREAD (SO FAR):
Q: "What makes you qualified to advise on energy or climate without a technical background?"
A: I was the translator, bridging technical expertise with political reality. Before DOGE's cuts, federal agencies housed world-class scientists who were a privilege to learn from. The technical capacity we desperately need is being destroyed.
Q: "How does it feel having a more hated job than health insurance CEO?"
A: During Pelosi's 4 years as Speaker, we were 3.5x more productive. Most bills require bipartisan four-corner agreement. The Paul Pelosi attack was horrifying - an 82-year-old man nearly murdered in his home became a joke. Your electricity bill is about to spike 29% thanks to the OBBB.
Q: "What big ideas should Democrats run on?"
A: Stop treating symptoms and attack root causes. ECONOMIC SECURITY: Make it possible to raise families. ENERGY INDEPENDENCE: Deploy grid tech that boosts capacity 33% without new plants. DIGITAL SELF-DETERMINATION: You own your data, choose your algorithms, creators get paid.
Q: "How can citizens actually change things?"
A: Start locally - State Public Utilities Commissions make crucial decisions. When informed residents participate, they've successfully challenged utilities and secured better protections. Twenty states have privacy laws because citizens pushed. Lots more ideas in the paper.
Q: "How do you explain Bernie getting sabotaged in 2016?"
A: Pelosi praised Bernie repeatedly in 2016, calling his message "very positive." The tragedy is Bernie expanded young voters - exactly what Democrats needed. The establishment fought it, then acted shocked when those voters stayed home.
Q: "What about people getting fucked over by data centers?" and "What are they capturing and why so many?"
A: They're poisoning communities while tech gets billions. Memphis: xAI drains 1 million gallons daily. North Omaha: coal plant stays open just for Google/Meta. Meta's getting a free fossil power plant for a new data center outside New Orleans, bought by local ratepayers. These centers do three things: store everything you've ever done online, run AI (using 10-100x more energy than web servers), and track you for "surveillance pricing" - different prices for different people. State rules have been gamed by utilities to incentivize big paybacks for new fossil plants which cost billions and take years to build. Clean power is cheaper than ever and able to be added immediately. It'd be even cheaper just to add storage like batteries and use more of the grid we have - only 53% is in use most times of day. Few states are making as much progress as they can. Congress doesn't know this is happening. Tell them.
Yelling at me on Reddit is among the least effective political acts of all time. Read my paper for the full analysis, and please consider doing one or two more things than last year to help better candidates get elected everywhere.
