The US Senate blocked the Ratepayer Protection Act on 30 September in a 57 to 43 vote, with only four Democrats joining Republicans in support, CNN reported. The bill would have required state utility regulators to consider a federal standard under which data-centre companies would cover costs they impose on the electricity grid. It had passed the House earlier in September with bipartisan support.
Key points
- The Senate blocked the Ratepayer Protection Act by 57 votes to 43.
- The bill would have required state regulators to consider a federal standard for allocating data-centre grid costs, rather than requiring states to adopt it.
- Democrats said the measure was too weak; Ohio Senator Jon Husted argued it was the available route to action on electricity prices.
The Ratepayer Protection Act left states a choice
The distinction between considering a standard and adopting one drove the Senate dispute. The proposed federal standard would have required data-centre companies to cover costs to the energy grid rather than passing them to consumers. The bill, however, would have required state regulators to consider that approach, not to put it into effect. Senate Democrats opposed the measure on the grounds that it went too little distance and lacked enforcement mechanisms.
The costs at issue included power infrastructure built for data centres and other large electricity users. State utility regulators would have had to consider whether those users should bear the incremental expense, Reuters reported while the vote was continuing. That requirement would have placed a question before regulators. The decision on whether to change how the costs were allocated would still have rested with the states.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the measure “optional” in remarks on 29 September. His objection concerned the gap between asking a regulator to examine a standard and requiring it to protect customers from a charge. Democrats said they would seek more robust measures. The House’s bipartisan vote earlier in September gave Senate Republicans a basis to press for passage, but did not resolve that disagreement over what the legislation would make states do.
Husted pressed for the Senate vote
Ohio Senator Jon Husted pushed for the bill as he faced Democrat and former senator Sherrod Brown in a competitive Senate race. Data-centre development has become an issue in Ohio communities, where Husted has praised its economic potential while supporting the Ratepayer Protection Act. Brown has run advertisements attacking Husted over the facilities. The vote put that local dispute over electricity costs before the full Senate.
Husted urged Republican leaders to bring senators back to Washington for a vote after they had considered leaving ahead of the midterms, people familiar with those discussions told CNN. Before the vote, Husted described the bill as a chance to demonstrate that Republicans favoured lower electricity prices and accountability for data centres. “This bill is the only game in town,” he said. His case was for taking the available legislative step, even though states would retain the choice over the proposed standard.
Senator Peter Welch of Vermont disputed the value of that step. He argued that ratepayers would be angry if they read a bill bearing their name and found that it provided no relief in rates. Welch called the measure a “political maneuver at the 11th hour”. The disagreement put two questions together: whether Congress should act before the election, and whether an instruction to state regulators to consider a standard counted as action on household bills.
Ohio campaigns contest the data-centre costs
Husted’s campaign spokesperson Amy Natoce accused Democrats of blocking legislation that she said would make data-centre companies pay for the power they use. Brown campaign spokesperson Lauren Chou made the opposing case: she accused Husted of helping bring data centres to Ohio while leaving residents with higher bills and granting corporations tax breaks. Those are campaign allegations, not findings about the effect the Senate bill would have had on electricity rates.
Chou also argued that Ohioans should decide whether data centres are built in their communities and should not subsidise large companies’ electricity costs. The Ratepayer Protection Act addressed a narrower decision: consideration by state utility regulators of a cost-allocation standard. Its failure leaves that proposed federal instruction out of law, while the campaigns continue to argue over who should decide where facilities are built and who pays for the power infrastructure serving them.
The issue had already prompted concern within Husted’s party. An internal August memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned that “data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck” in the Ohio race, CNN reported. The committee also described the issue as a “sleeper issue for the entire cycle”.
