On September 30, the U.S. Senate failed to advance the Ratepayer Protection Act (S. 5028) in a 57-43 vote. Although the measure received bipartisan support, it fell short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the Senate filibuster.
The bipartisan legislation would have required state utility regulators and nonregulated utilities to consider standards designed to ensure that large-load customers—including data centers with peak demand of at least 100 megawatts—cover the full incremental costs of the generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure needed to serve their demand. The legislation also would have required financial assurances intended to prevent those infrastructure costs from being shifted to other ratepayers.
The Senate action followed the House of Representatives’ bipartisan 417-3 vote on September 16 to pass H.R. 9340, which is the House version of this legislation.
As previously covered in IEC Insider, data centers have become a hotly contested issue leading up to the November 3 elections.
Of note, as discussed in IEC Insider’s latest article on permitting reform legislation, the Senate’s permitting reform bill includes provisions incorporating some ratepayer protection concepts, which could provide another potential vehicle for addressing these issues.