House Passes Ratepayer Protection Act to Make Data Centers Pay for Grid Upgrades

Week of September 14, 2026

Ratepayer Protection Act Clears the House With Only Three No Votes

The bill to make data centers pay for their grid upgrades passed committee 52-0 and the full House 417-3; it still needs Senate action.

• Yes
• No

View the data

	Yes	No
Energy and Commerce Committee (Jul 21)	52	0
House floor (Sep 16)	417	3

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The U.S. House voted 417 to 3 on Wednesday, September 16, to pass the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill meant to keep households from paying for the grid upgrades that large data centers require, according to the House Clerk's roll call and CBS News. The bill does not set rates and still needs Senate action. But the margin shows broad support in both parties for making AI capacity builders carry more of its power costs, some of which could reach what enterprises pay for compute.

What does the Ratepayer Protection Act do?

The bill, H.R. 9340, was sponsored by Rep. Gabe Evans, a Colorado Republican, with Rep. Kathy Castor, a Florida Democrat, as the lead cosponsor, according to Colorado Politics. The paper reported that Sen. Jon Husted sponsors a Senate companion.

It works through state utility commissions. Under the text the House passed, regulators would have to consider a federal standard under which new large-load customers pay the "full, incremental cost" of any generation, transmission or distribution upgrade needed to serve them. Large-load customers are defined as facilities that mainly run information technology infrastructure for data storage and computing, with aggregate peak demand of 100 megawatts or more at a single site or campus. States would get one year after enactment to begin that review and two years to complete it and decide whether to adopt the standard.

States must consider the approach but are not required to adopt it, and many are already debating their own data center rules, T&D World noted.

How did lawmakers and the industry react?

Support was broad but came with caveats. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said AI companies need to earn community trust and be "good neighbors," while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, described the bill as progress but said further action was needed, according to CBS News. The three no votes came from Democrats, listed in the Clerk's tally as Lee of Pennsylvania, Ramirez of Illinois and Tlaib of Michigan. Rep. Rashida Tlaib said the bill did not go far enough and called for a national moratorium on data centers, Colorado Politics reported.

The data center industry's main trade group has been more cautious. The Energy and Commerce Committee approved the bill 52-0 on July 21, the National Association of Counties said, after it was amended to target data centers specifically rather than all large projects of 100 megawatts or more. At the time, Data Center Coalition President Josh Levi said the narrower version singles out his industry and leaves households exposed to load growth from other industries, E&E News reported.

Why are data center power costs a political issue now?

Demand is the core of it. CBS News cited an International Energy Agency estimate that U.S. data center electricity use could more than double from 2024 levels by the end of the decade. It also noted that the White House has urged data center developers and tech companies to pledge to build or buy their own power.

The same week showed how the industry is responding. On September 16, Nvidia, Google and Emerald AI launched the AI Energy Management Alliance. According to Nvidia, the group wants faster grid connections for data centers that make verifiable flexibility commitments, such as shifting workloads or discharging storage during grid stress, and interconnection costs that reflect actual system impact. Also on September 16, Generac disclosed in a securities filing that Amazon received a warrant for about 1.7 million Generac shares that vests as Amazon's payments for data center backup generators accumulate, up to a cap of $8 billion. That cap is not a booked order; Generac expects initial deliveries of $2.4 billion in 2027 and 2028.

What does it mean for enterprise AI buyers?

Few enterprises operate 100 MW campuses, but most buy capacity from providers that do. If states adopt the standard, the price of new AI capacity could reflect more of its grid cost, and providers may favor regions where power is easier to secure.

Speakers at AI Connect events have warned that infrastructure economics already decide whether AI pays off. At The AI Enterprise Conference 2026, Everpure VP of AI Kaycee Lai said GPUs are the most expensive part of the stack once acquisition, power, space and cooling are counted, and that when storage can't keep up and GPUs sit idle, "that's not a good thing to tell your CFO." His case for bringing AI to where enterprise data already lives rests partly on using that hardware well. Panelists at the same event urged teams to track AI cost per outcome rather than raw spend, a habit that matters more if energy costs move into pricing.

Practical steps for CIOs and infrastructure leaders:

• Ask providers about power. Find out how cloud and colocation vendors expect grid cost rules to affect pricing and regional capacity over the next two to three years.
• Watch your own footprint. Companies planning private AI factories or large on-premises clusters should check whether state large-load tariffs could apply to them.

What happens next?

The bill now goes to the Senate. T&D World, citing Politico, said senators have about three weeks before Congress leaves for the midterm campaign recess. Even if it becomes law, the real decisions would come later in state utility commissions, where what counts as a data center's incremental cost would be settled case by case.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Ratepayer Protection Act?

H.R. 9340 would require state utility regulators to consider a federal standard under which data centers with aggregate peak demand of 100 MW or more at a single site pay the full incremental cost of the grid upgrades needed to serve them.

Does the bill force states to charge data centers more?

No. States would have one year after enactment to begin considering the standard and two years to decide whether to adopt it. Adoption is not mandatory.

How could the bill affect enterprises that use cloud AI?

If states adopt the standard, providers building new AI capacity could face higher grid costs, which may show up in pricing and in where capacity is offered.

Filed under: Data & AI Infrastructure, AI Strategy & ROI