In this episode of Gaslit: The Power of Story, the Citizens Action Coalition returns with a critical warning about a new and rapidly escalating threat to affordability in Indiana: hyperscale AI data centers. While Indiana already has several traditional data centers, the facilities now being proposed across the state are fundamentally different, larger, more resource-intensive, and capable of consuming more electricity than entire cities. What we are witnessing is a transformation in scale that many residents have not yet been told the truth about.

Ben, Bryce, and Ryan break that silence.

Taken together, their insights paint a clear picture of what is at stake. These new AI-driven facilities demand hundreds to thousands of megawatts of power, enough for a single center to exceed the peak demand of all 150,000 households currently served by our local utility. That level of energy usage has never existed in Indiana’s history. And on top of that, the water demands for cooling could reach hundreds of thousands to millions of gallons a day, depending on the technology chosen.

The discussion makes one thing unmistakable: if these facilities arrive without strict protections, the infrastructure built to serve them will be expensive, and that cost will not stay contained. It will spread. Ratepayers have seen this pattern before. When utilities build new assets, those costs are often shifted onto households, even when corporations are the source of the demand. In a region already paying some of the highest electric rates in the state, that shift could be devastating.

The affordability impacts go far beyond electricity. New water infrastructure, new substations, long-term fuel contracts, and delayed coal plant retirements all translate to higher bills for ordinary people. And as CAC explained, the rise of AI data centers is already driving up the cost of natural gas plants nationwide, meaning these are not abstract future risks; they are unfolding now.

But what makes this issue even more urgent is the way these projects are introduced. Shell companies, nondisclosure agreements, and zoning decisions pushed forward with only weeks of notice have become standard practice. Residents often learn of a proposed data center only once the process is already in motion. Several communities have had as little as one month to organize before critical votes.

Despite this, the conversation is not a message of inevitability. CAC shared a striking fact: Indiana communities have already stopped 13 of these proposed data centers. They were able to do that because residents organized, showed up, informed their neighbors, pushed back on zoning changes, and refused to be sidelined. They did it without national headlines. They did it without massive budgets. They did it by speaking up.

And this episode highlights a rare moment of unity: rural, urban, conservative, progressive, lifelong Hoosiers, and newly arrived residents. Across the state, people who share almost nothing politically still agree that communities deserve transparency, protection, and a say in what industries move in next door.

This episode closes with a reminder that local action works. Indiana, often portrayed as quiet or resigned, is proving otherwise. Ratepayers, advocates, and organizers have pushed affordability into the center of the statewide political conversation. They have shown that collective action, testimony, meetings, door-knocking, and storytelling, changes outcomes.

Gaslit exists for exactly this reason. Storytelling is not passive. Storytelling is social action. Through every episode, every shared experience, and every piece of research, the community builds a record of truth that corporations and policymakers cannot ignore. And as CAC made clear, when residents come together quickly and loudly, they can shape the future of their neighborhoods and protect their communities from decisions made behind closed doors.

Episode 8 is not simply another chapter of the series. It is a warning, a roadmap, and a signal that the fight for affordability is expanding into new territory, and that Hoosiers are not powerless. We can understand these issues. We can organize around them. And, as history is already showing, we can win.