Bob Dylan and the Overton Window

• Kelley Williams says the times are changing in Mississippi on energy policy.

“The times they are a-changing …. If you don’t learn to start swimming’, you’ll sink like a stone.” Bob Dylan’s 1963 lyrics about   social and political change and what happens if you don’t adapt still resonate.  They are timeless.  But now we say the Overton Window is shifting.  It’s a measure of what’s socially, culturally, and politically acceptable.  Policy wonk Joseph Overton dressed up folk singer Bob Dylan’s insights in academic jargon. 

He described a window of political possibility. Ideas shift from unthinkable to radical to acceptable to sensible to popular to POLICY and back the same way as times change.  The window also applies to cultural norms, group beliefs and behavior, business practices, news and TV and Hollywood propaganda, and other aspects of modern life.  It’s now shifting from left to right.  Some prominent lefties are sinking like stones.  

This is about an overdue change in business practices and government support for unethical and abusive electric utility monopolies.  That may be changing too. It’s about Entergy and the Amazon data centers and the politicians who enabled the secret deal.  What are some signs of change?

Well, the far-left Washington Post recently published a piece about data centers and their harm (the data center effect) to small customers whose rates go up to help pay for power the data centers use.  The piece was surprising and seemed to be poor editorial judgement — biting the hand that feeds you. Jeff Bezos owns the paper and Amazon’s data centers in Mississippi and in many other states.  

The less-far-left Wall Street Journal also recently weighed in with concern for small customers victimized by the data center effect.  Previously, these and other papers and media megaphones had been carried away by the promise of Artificial Intelligence and the data centers that its Large Language Models run on.  Harm to small customers of the utilities that power the data centers was unnoticed collateral damage.  But that’s changing.  Why?

There are millions of small customers.  Some of them vote. There is a possibility that enough of them might vote to hold the politicians accountable who voted for a utility’s sweetheart deal that makes their rates go up.   That possibility could make a good old boy politician calculate. Even one who’s obligated to and loyal to a utility.  There are some of those.  There are also some legislators who just go with the flow.  That may explain their vote in a two-day special session that enabled the secret deal for Entergy’s unlimited spending and no Public Service Commission oversight of it.  

How could they explain a vote that harms their poor constituents other than I was told by our legislative leaders and the Governor that the secret deal was good for the state?  And I believed them.   

That’s understandable given the slick messaging and the non-stop spin by Entergy and the Mississippi Development Authority.  Still, it may be awkward and embarrassing and politically costly to have been played for a fool if Entergy’s residential rates go up more than any other state due to the data center effect. That’s likely.  Why?

As previously reported, residential rates in Georgia and Virginia have gone up 27% and 29% because small customers there pay for part of the cost for utilities to supply power to data centers.  It’s likely small customers in Entergy’s monopoly service area will pay even more of its cost to supply Amazon’s power because the secret deal that legislators voted for is more favorable to Entergy.   How?  

In Georgia and Virginia and other states, legislators and regulators tried to control utilities’ spending for data centers.  Their Public Service Commission (PSC) regulators had authority to review and determine if the spending was prudent and how much of it should be charged to small customers.  They used that authority to exercise some control over utility spending. In addition, the legislature in Georgia put a three-year freeze on rate hikes.

In contrast, the Mississippi legislature sidelined PSC regulators and removed their authority to control Entergy’s spending.  It also removed existing 4% annual caps on rate increases.  And it opened the door for uncontrolled spending by authorizing no-bid contracts and construction starts before Entergy gets safety and environmental permits. If do-overs are required, customers pick up the tab.  It’s not surprising that Entergy’s out of control spending continues to increase. 

So, Mississippi is likely to become the national champ (chump) with the most severe data center effect on some of the poorest residential customers in the US.   Who is ultimately responsible?  The legislators who approved the one-sided deal.  Will they be held accountable?  Probably not if it’s Mississippi politics as usual.  

But then: The times they are a-changing.  Even in Mississippi.