US House to vote on ‘Ratepayer Protection Act’ as data center fury grows

The U.S. House of Representatives could vote as early as Wednesday on cross-party legislation designed to curb rising utility bills linked to the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers.

The upcoming decision arrives amid growing pressure on public officials across the country to protect everyday households from bearing the surging energy expenses required by data facilities.

Known as the Ratepayer Protection Act, the measure mandates state utility regulators to weigh whether heavy energy consumers, including data centers, must pay for the additional electrical infrastructure built for them. Representative Kathy Castor, a Democrat from Florida, introduced the bill alongside Gabe Evans, a Colorado Republican.

With joint support from both parties, the measure is anticipated to clear the House, presenting a rare moment of consensus in Congress as lawmakers attempt to manage economic expansion, electrical grid stability, and household power costs prior to November's midterm elections.

Speaking at a news conference this week, U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries voiced support for the proposal. He described it as an "appropriate step forward" while noting that "more clearly needs to be done."

Allison Clements, a former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member, remarked that while the proposal is not groundbreaking, it conveys a meaningful signal.

"This particular ratepayer bill is really one relatively modest step in the right direction," Clements said. "It holds value in that it's signaling, should it pass on a bipartisan basis, that Congress continues to be aligned with the priorities of protecting customers in the face of all of this new needed investment and demand growth."

Environmental group Food & Water Watch, which supports a nationwide pause on constructing new data centers, argued that the bill deals strictly with electricity costs while failing to address wider concerns regarding data centers' impacts on water resources, pollution, and local communities.

The majority of Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the impact of data centers on electricity prices or the water supply, according to a new AP-NORC/EPIC poll.

Approximately 6 in 10 Americans want to see limits on the number of new data centers that can be built and about two-thirds of U.S. adults want data centers to be required to use clean energy sources, the poll found.

Roughly 7 in 10 support requiring companies that build data centers to pay for electric grid upgrades needed to support them.