Ohio Bill Aims to Shield Ratepayers from Data Center Costs
Ohio Senator Jon Husted’s Ratepayer Protection Bill seeks to prevent families and small businesses from bearing energy costs for data centers.
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Ohio Republican Senator Jon Husted is pushing forward with the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bill designed to shield families and small businesses from the rising costs of energy infrastructure needed to support large electricity users, such as data centers. The legislation, which has already gained overwhelming support in the U.S. House of Representatives, is expected to be voted on in the Senate this week. Only three members of Congress opposed its passage in the House, signaling strong bipartisan backing.
Protecting Ratepayers from Infrastructure Costs
The Ratepayer Protection Act would require states to establish standards for energy regulators when connecting large electricity users to the power grid. Under the bill, companies such as data centers would be responsible for paying for the power generation, transmission lines, and other infrastructure needed to serve their facilities. This would prevent these costs from being passed on to ratepayers, who are already facing rising energy bills.
“Working families, small businesses and senior citizens should not open up their electric bills and discover the pain for the power infrastructure needed by some large tech company in the world or in their neighborhood,” Husted said in remarks on the Senate floor. “That is the principle behind the Ratepayer Protection Act. In plain language, if you create the cost, you should pay the cost. Most importantly, it will help the American people keep more of what they earn.”
Sen. Heinrich Blocks Unanimous Consent
The proposed legislation faced a setback when Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) blocked the proposed unanimous consent on September 18. Heinrich argued that the bill was “not enough,” despite its bipartisan support in the House. Instead, he wants his own bill, the GRID Savings Act, to be considered. His bill would require large load customers like data centers to pay for the facilities needed to connect them to the grid, rather than just making pledges.
Husted’s bill is seen as a legislative codification of much of what President Donald Trump has asked energy and technology companies to do through his Ratepayer Protection Pledge. Trump has previously stated that the pledge is key to promoting economic growth, lowering costs, and protecting consumers while also helping the U.S. dominate the global artificial intelligence race.
In March, major companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI signed on to the Ratepayer Protection Pledge at an event at the White House, signaling strong corporate support for the initiative. Husted’s legislation aims to turn this pledge into enforceable policy, ensuring that the costs of supporting data centers are borne by the companies themselves, not by the general public.
Source: Breitbart
