Sept. 16 (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill aimed at protecting families from increases in electricity costs arising from the expansion of data centers, the first time the House has approved legislation that directly addresses the economic concerns tied to the sector’s growth.
The House, with a Republican majority, voted 417 to 3 in favor of the Energy Consumer Protection Act, which requires state public utilities commissions to assess whether large electricity users, including data centers, should bear the incremental costs of the energy infrastructure built to serve them.
The vote highlights the complex political dynamics surrounding the data center boom in the United States.
The U.S. president, Donald Trump, strongly supports the development of data centers as a key factor for leadership in artificial intelligence. Earlier this week, he stated that data centers enrich people and states, calling them “the oil for the next 20, 25 years.”
At the same time, lawmakers from both parties have been facing growing voter concerns about rising electricity costs tied to the sector’s increasing energy demand.
House Republican leaders introduced the bill before lawmakers left Washington, ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
U.S. Representative Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, said before the vote that the measure does not go far enough, but would receive significant support from members who hope more reforms will follow.
“Clearly they are trying to preempt the data center issue, but the reality is that, in fact, they have done nothing about it,” he said of the House Republicans. “I think many of their base voters are really irritated. There need to be real and concrete protections for people, and this is not the case.”
Only 11% of Americans would support the construction of an AI data center in their community, according to a University of Massachusetts Amherst study released this week.
