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Senate Democrats Crush Bill Shielding Families From Data Center Power Costs [WATCH]

Posted By LifeZette Staff On In News | No Comments

Senate Democrats blocked legislation intended to shield American families from rising energy costs tied to data centers.

The Ratepayer Protection Act sought to place infrastructure expenses on massive electricity users rather than ordinary customers already paying monthly utility bills, as reported [1] by Townhall.

Lawmakers voted 57 to 43 on HR 9340, with all 43 opposing votes coming from Democrats or independents. Despite receiving 57 votes, the legislation was blocked in the Senate.

The Senate result stands in sharp contrast with the bill’s reception in the House. The same legislation previously cleared that chamber by a lopsided vote of 417 to 3.

House Republicans said every Republican supported the measure during that vote.

The overwhelming House tally made the Senate blockade all the more striking, especially for legislation centered on protecting ratepayers from costs created by unusually heavy electricity demand.

If approved by the Senate and signed into law, HR 9340 would have required states to consider activating a federal standard for large load customers.

Data centers were among the major electricity consumers covered by the proposal.

The standard concerned customers whose operations generate substantial costs for electricity generation, transmission, or distribution.

The bill’s purpose was to prevent those expenses from being shifted onto Americans who did not create the added demand.

The measure applied to large energy consumers such as data centers with a peak electric demand of 100 megawatts or more at a single site or campus.

That threshold focused the legislation on especially power-hungry facilities rather than ordinary homes or smaller customers.

Under the proposed plan, an electric utility would require a large load customer to provide financial assurance before infrastructure upgrades were made.

That assurance would cover the cost of generation, transmission, or distribution upgrades needed to serve the customer’s load.

The requirement was designed to settle responsibility for those costs before the utility moved forward with an upgrade.

In practical terms, the large customer creating the need for additional infrastructure would have to demonstrate that it could pay for that infrastructure.

Republicans introduced the Ratepayer Protection Act with a straightforward argument.

They wanted data centers to pay for their own power infrastructure instead of leaving regular electricity customers facing higher bills for upgrades associated with those facilities.

Sen. John Husted, an Ohio Republican, supported the legislation and called it a “no-brainer.”

His backing placed him squarely behind the effort to make major data center customers shoulder the costs connected to serving their electricity demand.

The source also raised the possibility that Democrats killed the legislation to help Sherrod Brown, a Democrat seeking to win the Ohio Senate seat filled by Husted.

The source did not present that possible political motivation as a confirmed explanation for the vote.

Brown’s candidacy adds a political angle to the Senate fight described in the source.

Still, the recorded votes provide the clearest picture: 43 Democrats or independents opposed the measure after it had sailed through the House by 417 to 3.

The legislation did not seek to stop data centers from using electricity or utilities from making necessary upgrades.

Instead, it would have required states to consider a federal standard addressing who must cover the infrastructure costs created by these exceptionally large customers.

Senate Democrats and independents supplied every vote against that approach.

The result blocked a bill intended to keep families from being stuck with energy expenses tied to data centers consuming at least 100 megawatts at one site or campus.

For ratepayers, the central issue was who pays when immense electricity users require new generation, transmission, or distribution infrastructure.

The House overwhelmingly backed placing that obligation on the large customers responsible for the demand, but Senate Democrats slammed on the brakes.