The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act in a 417-3 vote on September 16, 2026. The bill urges state regulators to make data centers cover the electricity infrastructure costs of the AI boom, shielding ordinary households from rising utility bills. The vote highlights intense political pressure ahead of the November midterms, as local communities protest the environmental and financial toll of server farms, even as President Trump champions rapid AI expansion to compete with China.
Ratepayer Protection Act passage
- ▪Under current United States law, Congress cannot force state regulators to follow federal standards when setting electricity rates, limiting the direct enforcement of the Ratepayer Protection Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on September 16, 2026
- ▪Tyson Slocum of the consumer rights non-profit Public Citizen criticized the Ratepayer Protection Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on September 16, 2026, stating it has very limited ability to protect consumers because it only asks states to consider rules requiring data centers to pay for certain grid interconnection costs
- ▪The United States House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act on September 16, 2026, in a 417-3 vote
- ▪The Ratepayer Protection Act, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on September 16, 2026, was introduced by Representative Gabe Evans, Republican of Colorado, and Representative Kathy Castor, Democrat of Florida
- ▪The Ratepayer Protection Act requires state utility regulators to consider rules ensuring data centers meet the expenses of new power generation, transmission lines, and other grid upgrades
Data center electricity cost burden
- ▪The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers has led to concerns that ordinary American families are subsidizing the extraordinary electricity demands of the technology
- ▪On one electricity grid covering 67 million customers, including Pennsylvania and Ohio, increased data center demand helped drive costs up by $9.3 billion, or 174 percent, in a single year
Midterm election political pressure
- ▪Candidates in more than 20 political races across at least 18 states have run television advertisements mentioning data centers during the 2026 election cycle
- ▪Ohio Republican Jon Husted has pressed Senate colleagues to move quickly on the Ratepayer Protection Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on September 16, 2026, while facing criticism from his Democratic opponent, Sherrod Brown, over his previous support for data center development in Ohio
- ▪The House of Representatives voted on the Ratepayer Protection Act just before lawmakers left Washington ahead of the November 3, 2026, midterm elections
Trump AI infrastructure support
- ▪President Donald Trump supports rapid data center construction, arguing that the United States must expand artificial intelligence infrastructure to defeat China in the global technology race
- ▪The Trump administration persuaded Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI, and Amazon to sign a voluntary pledge not to leave consumers paying for new power infrastructure needed to support their data centers
- ▪President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that communities rejecting data centers will be "backwards and poor," while those accepting them will be successful and rich
Local community opposition concerns
- ▪Texas Governor Greg Abbott froze new data center projects to study their effects on electricity and water, while New York imposed a year-long moratorium on new hyperscale centers
- ▪A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll published in September 2026 found that only 11% of Americans would support the construction of an artificial intelligence data center in their community
- ▪Local opposition to data centers has spread across the United States due to concerns over water consumption, noise, pollution, and lucrative tax breaks offered to technology companies
- ▪A Politico poll reported that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe artificial intelligence could eventually pose a threat to humanity, with 48 percent favoring a pause on advanced model development
Debatable claims
- ▪The Ratepayer Protection Act is too weak to protect utility ratepayers
- ▪State governments should halt the construction of new data centers
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