Home · Politics · Sep 17 archive
Trump: If I Can’t Have the Kennedy Center, No One Can
Confirmed
In Short: The House of Representatives passed the Ratepayer Protection Act, aiming to shield communities from higher energy costs associated with data centers, as the issue becomes a key campaign topic ahead of the midterms.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Ratepayer Protection Act (RPA), a bill designed to shield communities from higher energy electricity and grid infrastructure costs associated with data center development. The bill, which does not seek to ban data centers or set limitations on their expansion, requires large data centers to pay the full extra cost of the generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades built to serve them.
The legislation, championed by Representative Gabe Evans, R-Colo., aims to put the onus and responsibility on tech and data center companies to pay for power upgrades required to operate new large data centers, rather than consumers. Evans framed it as a needed step toward keeping data center energy costs from spilling over to local communities.
The bill's passage comes as a growing local backlash against data centers threatens the artificial intelligence boom ahead of the midterm elections. According to reports, the data center issue has garnered attention as a proxy for affordability, energy, and regulatory debates, with candidates in key races proposing data center regulations and moratoriums.
In a separate development, former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the Board of The Kennedy Center agreed to close the building for safety reasons and begin the process of reconstruction, renaming it the Trump-Kennedy Center. His appointees later named the center's opera house after first lady Melania Trump, prompting litigation.
What's confirmed
- The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Ratepayer Protection Act (RPA), a bill designed to shield communities from higher energy electricity and grid infrastructure costs associated with data center development. The bill, which does not seek to ban data centers or set limitations on their expansion, requires large data centers to pay the full extra cost of the generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades built to serve them.
- The legislation, championed by Representative Gabe Evans, R-Colo., aims to put the onus and responsibility on tech and data center companies to pay for power upgrades required to operate new large data centers, rather than consumers. Evans framed it as a needed step toward keeping data center energy costs from spilling over to local communities.
- The bill's passage comes as a growing local backlash against data centers threatens the artificial intelligence boom ahead of the midterm elections. According to reports, the data center issue has garnered attention as a proxy for affordability, energy, and regulatory debates, with candidates in key races proposing data center regulations and moratoriums.
- In a separate development, former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the Board of The Kennedy Center agreed to close the building for safety reasons and begin the process of reconstruction, renaming it the Trump-Kennedy Center. His appointees later named the center's opera house after first lady Melania Trump, prompting litigation.
What's still developing
- "My neighbors across Florida are grappling with skyrocketing electric bills. Ratepayers should not have to subsidize wealthy corporations’ growing energy demands, especially from AI data centers," Castor said.
- "Roy believes local communities must have the final say on new projects coming to their area, which includes local moratoriums, and data centers must pay for all of the energy they use without passing on any of their costs to consumers," a spokesperson for Cooper’s campaign said in a statement to Fox News Digital earlier this month.
- "Michael Whatley's standard is simple: Data centers pay their own way, families pay nothing and communities decide. That means Big Tech builds or buys every megawatt it needs and covers every dime of the grid upgrades to deliver it, with zero costs shifted onto residential ratepayers. It means no special subsidies and no sweetheart deals cut over the heads of taxpayers," Whatley’s campaign said.
- Specifically, the legislation would create a federal standard for state utility regulators to consider when they create rules for large, high-power data centers to cover the costs of power generation, transmission lines and other infrastructure upgrades needed to power those facilities, according to Evans.
- “Hardworking families should not have to subsidize the energy demands of data centers,” Evans said in a statement after the vote.
- Evans and other at-risk lawmakers had been pressing GOP leaders for a vote on data centers, which have emerged as a key campaign issue in the November midterm elections.