House To Vote On Data Center Energy Use Bill. Critics Say It Won’t Protect Residents Anyway.

The House is expected to vote this week on a bill that would seek to protect people from potentially high energy costs driven by AI data centers.

The Ratepayer Protection Act has been introduced in the House and has bipartisan support. The bill would "amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full, incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, and for other purposes."

The change would target AI data centers, which use a tremendous amount of energy. Some data center developments include their own power generation systems; some do not.

Although proponents say that it will help protect residents from footing the bill for data center energy infrastructure and consumption, critics have said the bill does not go far enough and would do little other than enabling Big Tech projects.

Colorado Republican Rep. Gabe Evans sponsored the bill. He wrote on social media that he expected the vote this week.

"My bill requires that large energy load data centers be 100% responsible for the costs of the new energy infrastructure necessary to serve them," Evans stated. "The principle is commonsense: Those creating the new demand should be responsible for the costs associated with meeting that demand."

However, the organization Food and Water Watch said the bill was weak and would essentially enable Big Tech projects around the country.

"The name 'Ratepayer Protection Act' is a gross misnomer. This legislation is little more than a cynical fig leaf for Big Tech," the organization stated. "It does nothing to guarantee protection from skyrocketing electricity rates, alarming water consumption and increased fossil fuel pollution that hyperscale data centers are inflicting upon communities across the country."

Data centers have become a political flashpoint, particularly across the upper Midwest. Data Center Watch, an organization that tracks opposition to data centers across the country, reported that in the first quarter of 2026, 75 projects worth approximately $130 billion were disrupted by local opposition.

The opposition has incurred the wrath of President Trump, who in August, chastised data center opponents: "The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor."

This week Trump also came out strongly for AI and, despite bipartisan concern about the technology, attempted to frame it as a leftist plot.

"The claim that 'AI is going to take over the World' is a Hoax, just like Global 'Warming,' where everyone was going to be dead by now, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, or Impeachment Hoax #1, or Impeachment Hoax #2. These are all Radical Left Dumocrats, who never give up, but seldom win. Hopefully, the Voters have seen the light!," the president wrote in one of several recent posts on AI.

Although Evans wrote that the bill also addresses states that do not have specific standards related to data center energy demands, critics say state regulators could easily sidestep it.

"With only a weak directive to states to voluntarily consider adopting cost protections against the energy costs of data centers for ratepayers, state regulators could ultimately choose to ignore this bill," Sara Chieffo, senior vice president of government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters said in a statement to CNBC.