The US House will vote on legislation aimed at shielding homeowners from rising electricity costs driven by AI data center demand.

Lawmakers are poised to vote on legislation designed to shield homeowners from rising utility costs driven by large data centers, marking the latest congressional effort to address the complex regulatory landscape surrounding artificial intelligence and data infrastructure.

The House will vote on the Ratepayer Protection Act on Wednesday. The legislation would establish a federal standard requiring utilities to recover the costs of grid upgrades necessitated by high-demand customers, such as data centers. Its rapid rise on the congressional agenda underscores how swiftly data centers have emerged as a dominant political issue this year. The vote also highlights the difficult balancing act Congress faces in regulating artificial intelligence. President Donald Trump has advocated for minimal oversight on AI and has dismissed growing public opposition to data center expansion.

On the House floor Tuesday, Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) stated that the legislation introduces a "modest but important measure of accountability," noting that lawmakers heard directly from concerned constituents during the August recess. “Electricity demand is growing at a pace not seen since World War II, and communities are rightly concerned about what this might mean for their daily lives,” Guthrie said. “As this industry continues to develop, I want to be absolutely clear that we need it to develop here at home and not in China.”

This effort to mitigate data centers’ impact on energy costs emerged from a larger pool of roughly six AI- and data center-related bills that previously stalled in Congress. A companion measure in the Senate was introduced by Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) and cosponsored by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and has remained in committee since July.

Ratepayer protection bill

The Ratepayer Protection Act originated as a bipartisan initiative introduced in June by Reps. Gabe Evans (R-CO) and Kathy Castor (D-FL). However, it rapidly accumulated sponsors in recent weeks as pressure mounted on lawmakers to rein in artificial intelligence. The legislation directs state utility regulators to implement pricing structures for large-load electricity consumers—defined as those with peak demand exceeding 100 megawatts. These rates would enable utilities to recoup the costs of grid upgrades triggered by such demand. Additionally, the bill requires large customers to offset any remaining financial impacts should they cease operations. By shifting these expenses away from residential accounts, the bill aims to protect homeowners from bearing the cost of new power infrastructure built to serve large commercial clients.

“By and large, it has not been the data centers footing the bill; it's been our constituents,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) said on the House floor Tuesday night. “It doesn't matter if you're in a red state or a blue state, your prices have gone up.”

The measure now boasts 42 cosponsors, predominantly Republicans, with 28 joining since the House reconvened from its late July summer recess. It has also secured backing from the moderate Problem Solvers Caucus. Evans acknowledged that data centers drive economic growth and emphasized that “responsible development practices” are essential for regulating the sector. Nevertheless, he stressed that expanding domestic data center capacity is critical to preventing foreign competitors from gaining a strategic advantage.

Artificial intelligence conundrum

Both chambers of Congress are considering additional AI-related legislation, ranging from Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) proposal for a complete moratorium on data center development to Rep. Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) suggestion of a tax to offset industry impacts. Those proposals have not gained traction at the same pace as the Ratepayer Protection Act, and they face significant headwinds given President Trump’s repeated criticism of industry regulation.

“Concerning AI, when, in the History of Business, did anyone see the Leaders of an Industry call for Regulation that, if strongly implemented, will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy?” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday. “AI, and Data Centers, will be the Greatest Economic Development Engine in History — Bigger than Oil, Gold, Diamonds, or even the Internet.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) echoed Trump’s stance, dismissing recent headlines framing AI as an existential threat to humanity as a “hoax” designed to stoke fear ahead of the midterm elections. Instead, the administration plans to convene AI business leaders to address industry concerns directly. “They can self-police, they can self-regulate,” Johnson told reporters at a press conference. “They don't need the government to tell them to slow it down.”

Conversely, Pallone argued that the Ratepayer Protection Act “does not go far enough” to limit how data center expansion impacts residential electricity bills. He noted that both state and federal lawmakers must also address generation and transmission costs.

Broader energy moves

Meanwhile, Congress is pursuing broader initiatives to expand national energy generation capacity, aiming to meet the anticipated power demands of hundreds of new data center projects. McKinsey estimates the sector will invest $7 trillion in infrastructure by 2030, a figure proponents cite as a catalyst for economic growth. Goldman Sachs projects that data center power demand will more than double between 2025 and 2027, though the firm notes that only 50% to 60% of planned capacity will likely come online due to project delays and cancellations.

These projections have fostered bipartisan support for upgrading the nation’s nuclear energy infrastructure and modernizing technology to facilitate new plant construction. The federal government is also assisting with financing for additional nuclear reactors to help meet surging power demands. In early September, the Department of Energy announced a $1.9 billion loan to restart a nuclear power plant in Iowa. Plant owner NextEra has already secured an agreement with Google to supply a portion of the facility’s output for data center operations.

In July, the White House highlighted a voluntary “ratepayer protection pledge” encouraging companies to cover the power costs for their own facilities. Approximately 300 organizations have signed on, including major utilities such as AEP Corp., Dominion Energy, and Duke Energy, alongside large technology firms like Amazon, Meta, and Google.

Tristan Navera is a senior reporter on housing policy, covering trends and solutions in the housing market from Washington, D.C. He previously served as a senior reporter at Bloomberg Law and covered real estate for the Washington Business Journal. Earlier in his career, he spent a decade reporting on business and real estate in Dayton and Columbus, Ohio. A Cincinnati native, Navera holds a journalism degree from Ohio University.