Congress Moves to Make Tech Companies Pay AI Data Center Energy Costs as Bills Surge 267%

Tech companies would have to pay AI data center energy costs under bill moving in Congress

The House of Representatives on Wednesday will begin consideration of a bill to force tech companies to pay for artificial intelligence's strain on the power grid, as voters across the country express dissatisfaction with data centers driving up utility costs. The House Energy and Commerce Committee energy subpanel is scheduled to debate and vote on the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bill that would require state utilities to consider creating a "large load standard" that would require data center builders to pay for upgrades to the grid needed to power them. The bill would codify parts of the White House's "Ratepayer Protection Pledge." The bill represents one of the first attempts by Congress to force tech companies to pony up for data centers' massive electricity demand. It comes months away from the midterm elections, where voters will decide whether to rip total control of Washington away from President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and SpaceX's xAI are among the largest builders and operators of data centers. "Families and small businesses across the country shouldn't be left to foot the bill for this new development, though the benefits of these innovations will be felt by all of society," said House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. "The Ratepayer Protection Act is a bipartisan effort, which would ensure that the costs of grid upgrades are appropriately paid for according to demand." The bill is sponsored by Reps. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., and Kathy Castor, D-Fla.

House votes on AI data centre energy costs bill

Congress is moving to stop households paying for Big Tech's AI power bills. A House panel votes this week on a package of measures to put AI data centre energy costs back on the companies that create them. Congress is moving to stop households paying for Big Tech's AI power bills. A House panel votes this week on a package of measures. The aim is to put AI data centre energy costs back on the companies that create them. As AI drives up electricity bills, Congress wants Big Tech to pick up more of the tab. The House Energy and Commerce Committee's energy panel votes on Wednesday on a package of bills, POLITICO's E&E News reported. The bills take aim at AI data centre energy costs. The goal is to stop ordinary households subsidising the build-out. It is an early step, not a finished law. A subcommittee markup is the start of a long road. But the move matters. It is the first time Republican leaders have rallied around concrete plans to tackle data centre rate hikes. What the bills would do The headline measure is the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act, or H.R. 9340. It would codify the principle behind President Trump's "Ratepayer Protection Pledge." Under that pledge, Big Tech firms said they would cover their own data centre energy costs. In plain terms, the cost of powering a data centre should fall on its owner. Not on the family down the road. The mechanism is technical but blunt. The bill would amend a 1978 utility law to make the largest power users shoulder the full, incremental cost of the grid upgrades built to serve them. It would apply to any non-residential site drawing 100 megawatts or more, a bar set to capture large data centres. It even covers stranded costs, so a customer that walks away still pays for the upgrades built on its behalf. Rep. Gabe Evans, a Colorado Republican, leads it. Rep. Kathy Castor, a Florida Democrat, co-sponsors. A second bill carries the populist name. The Protecting Families from AI Data Center Energy Costs Act, or H.R. 6529, comes from Rep. Greg Landsman, a Democrat from Ohio. It is narrower than its title suggests. It would direct federal energy regulators to convene major stakeholders and work out how to shield residents from rising bills. The conference would gather utilities, regulators and consumer advocates around one table. The rest of the package The rest of the package is grid plumbing. Some bills would push regulators to study electricity-demand forecasting. Others would test AI tools for running the grid, or set standards for better transmission lines. Together they form the committee's answer to a boom that is straining the system. The markup is set for Wednesday afternoon in the Rayburn building. The named measures include the Load Forecasting Enhancement Act and the Advanced Transmission Technology to Reduce Rates Act. Neither will make headlines. Both aim to give the grid better data and better wires, so it can absorb the load to come. Why now The numbers explain the urgency. Electricity bills near major data centre hubs have risen by as much as 267% over five years, CNBC reported. Data centres now eat 4% to 5% of all US electricity. That share is climbing fast. The builders are familiar. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Elon Musk's xAI rank among the biggest operators of data centres. Their AI ambitions need enormous amounts of power. Someone has to pay to deliver it. The fight is over who. Behind the bills sits a simple worry. When a utility spends billions to wire up a data centre, that cost can land on every customer's monthly statement. Lawmakers want the company that ordered the power to carry it instead. The pledge made that promise. The bills would try to make it stick. A rare bipartisan moment The politics are unusual. "America must win the race for AI dominance with China," said Brett Guthrie, the Republican who chairs the committee. He pitched the bills as a way to "protect ratepayers from higher electricity prices." The markup falls to Rep. Bob Latta, the Ohio Republican who chairs the energy subcommittee. He will steer the package through its first vote. Getting Republicans behind a cost-shifting idea at all marks a shift in the party's mood. Democrats point to the public mood. Kathy Castor co-sponsored the ratepayer bill. She said Republicans are reacting to "populist anger" from voters. "The public is up in arms," she said. "They are very wary of paying any more for electricity." That anger is showing up on the ground. Grassroots campaigns have already blocked dozens of data centre projects worth billions, as towns push back on the strain. The regulators are moving too Congress is not acting alone. Days before the markup, federal energy regulators ordered grid operators to act. They must show they can stop utilities and AI firms from shifting data centre costs onto ordinary customers. The bills would lock that principle into law. The regulator framed it as shielding the public from a cost shift that has already begun. Senate leaders are weighing grid upgrades of their own, folded into a broader fight over permitting reform. The pieces are starting to move at once. The backdrop is a spending surge. US utilities plan to pour $1.4 trillion into the grid by 2030 to keep up with demand. Households could cover a large slice of that. The same squeeze is playing out abroad, where the EU has asked households to cut power use as data centres strain its grids. The case for caution This is a long way from a fix. H.R. 6529 mostly tells regulators to hold a meeting. The other bills are modest by design. House Republicans still resist giving Washington broad new powers over transmission lines. There is a deeper gap, too. Codifying a voluntary pledge is not the same as a hard rule. A markup is not a law. The bills must clear the full committee, the House and the Senate, where grid policy is tangled up in wider permitting fights. AI's power demand, meanwhile, keeps growing. Still, the direction is clear. For the first time, both parties agree that families should not quietly pay for the AI boom. The cost pressure is already changing plans elsewhere, with OpenAI pausing a UK data centre over energy costs and rules. Whether these bills become law or not, the question they raise will not go away. Who pays for AI's electricity? The bill is coming due, and Washington is deciding who signs it.