The buzz continues around plans by the Internet's big three to build power-hungry data centers in Eastern Washington and Oregon.

Today, it's on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, which notes that Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google are taking advantage of low hydroelectric power rates in locating the server farms that run Internet services like search and e-mail.

The story says long-term power contracts for some utility-owned dams are coming loose "for the first time in a half-century."

"The public-utility districts will be able to lay claim to power they have been furnishing to other utilities such as Seattle City Light and Portland General Electric Co. This has created room for watchful companies to swoop in and lock up supplies of cut-rate electricity in what may be a once-in-a-generation opportunity."

Seattle Times technology columnist Brier Dudley connected the dots back in April.