Data center bills

Bipartisan Senate duo drops new data center bills

It’s not clear whether Democrats will support measures not guaranteed to rein in costs.

Kelsey Brugger

A bipartisan Senate duo is rolling out two new data center bills one day after Democrats rejected a House-passed measure designed to shield ratepayers from costs associated with the facilities.

The measures from Sens. John Curtis (R-Utah) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) would aim to provide people with more information about the data centers being built in their backyards amid growing backlash against the nationwide proliferation brought on by the artificial intelligence industry boom.

One bill would establish a program within the Department of Energy to give communities access to technical expertise to better understand the costs and benefits of proposed data center developments. The other would require federal reporting on the environmental impacts of large data centers that consume at least 50 megawatts of power every day.

“Americans are rightly skeptical when a large company tells them not to worry about the impacts of a new data center in their community,” Curtis said in a statement, shared first with POLITICO. “The answer to that distrust is transparency.”

Blunt Rochester added in a separate statement that people have “legitimate concerns” about energy and water usage coming from data centers, and that her bills with Curtis would “ensure communities have a say in how these projects affect their quality of life.”

Curtis and Blunt Rochester, who both serve on the Senate Commerce Committee, recently teamed up on a letter to Chair Ted Cruz calling for hearings and forums to discuss the perils of rapidly-advancing AI technology. They have not yet received a response.

It’s not clear what the path might be for their new data center bills in the current Congress. While support from members of both parties could bolster the effort, neither measure would contain forcing mechanisms to bring down costs passed on from data centers to consumers — a rallying cry for Democrats ahead of the midterms.

Most Senate Democrats on Wednesday blocked the Ratepayer Protection Act, legislation that passed overwhelmingly in the House earlier in September, from going to President Donald Trump’s desk because it would simply encourage tech companies to pay for data center infrastructure.

Democrats said the bill, championed in the Senate by vulnerable GOP Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio, was ultimately “toothless” in failing to go far enough to ensure energy prices were curbed for consumers.