Unfortunately, Engadget makes the headline sound like Microsoft was deliberately wasting power rather than making an economic decision to overcome a ridiculous policy. NYT's headline is no better.

If the state is going to fine them for not using enough electricity and fine them more than the cost of using that amount of electricity, it only makes sense to burn the CPUs and air con for a while. Yeah it sucks that they're wasting power and having a larger impact on the environment. But that's the fault of the power company imposing a minimum power consumption.