Key points
- Trump is talking with Thune about a data center power bill
- The goal is shielding households from higher bills
- A House bill passed but stalled in the Senate
- States are already acting on their own
President Donald Trump said on Friday he is talking with Senate Majority Leader John Thune about a bill to protect households from rising electricity costs tied to data centers. "Well, I'm talking to him about it. We'll see what happens," Trump told reporters, according to Reuters.
Congress already has a version of the idea. The House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act 417 to 3 this week. A Republican push to move it quickly through the Senate failed on Thursday.
What the bill would do
The Ratepayer Protection Act would require state utility regulators to consider a federal standard under which large electricity users, including data centers, pay the full cost of new power and transmission infrastructure built to serve them. The bill would not set that requirement directly; state regulators would retain control over whether to adopt it.
The Senate effort stalled over how far the bill would go. Senator Jon Husted, a Republican and the sponsor, asked for a vote by unanimous consent, without a roll call. Senator Martin Heinrich, the top Democrat on the Energy Committee, objected that the bill would only ask states and developers to act voluntarily instead of requiring it.
Some states are not waiting for Washington. Virginia unveiled its own framework on Friday to shift more of those costs onto data centers, following similar moves in New York, Texas, and Pennsylvania.
