House Passes Ratepayer Protection Act 417-3 on Data-Center Costs

The House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act 417-3 under a fast-track suspension of the rules requiring two-thirds support, NBC News reported. The bill sets a federal standard state utility regulators would consider when integrating new large-load customers, targeting data centers that use at least 100 megawatts of electricity at one site or campus, and would require those customers to pay the full extra cost of the generation, transmission and distribution upgrades built to serve them.

"Hardworking families should not have to subsidize the energy demands of data centers," said Rep. Gabe Evans, the Colorado Republican who sponsored the bill with Florida Democrat Rep. Kathy Castor. Both sit on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Even members voting yes were cool on the ceiling. Rep. Veronica Escobar called it "the bare minimum" and "kind of pathetic."

Only three members voted no. Reps. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Delia Ramirez of Illinois and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, all Democrats, opposed the bill. Tlaib said it "fails to meaningfully protect our communities" and called instead for "a national moratorium on data centers."

It is the first data-center-related bill passed in the 119th Congress. The Senate has its own data-center bills but has not advanced any of them, and the House vote is likely one of the last pieces of legislation lawmakers will take up before the November 3 midterms. The politics are the tell: Evans and Castor are, per NBC, "two of their respective parties' most vulnerable incumbents this November." An NBC News poll found 70% of adults oppose building AI data centers in their neighborhoods, and 45% strongly opposed them. The alerts we've been tracking on AI infrastructure keep circling the same fault line: who pays for the grid a hyperscaler build-out demands.