AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Tom’s Hardware, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

---

The United States Senate voted 57-43 on September 30 to reject the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill that failed by just three votes from the required sixty. This decision ends the legislative process for the act, which had previously cleared the House of Representatives. The bill was introduced by Senator Jon Husted and aimed to establish a federal standard requiring large electricity consumers, such as data centers, to cover the incremental costs of energy infrastructure needed to serve them.

Proponents argue that without this protection, data center operators could pass these infrastructure costs onto residents and small businesses. Senator Husted stated that while America must build energy infrastructure to support AI and national security, it should not do so at the expense of working families. However, opponents, mostly Democrats, criticized the bill as "toothless" because its non-binding nature meant regulators were only asked to consider the standard rather than mandated to adopt it. Only four Democrats voted in favor, leading to the bill’s collapse.

With no new federal protection currently in place, some lawmakers suggest Congress may reevaluate the issue after the November mid-term elections, potentially with revisions requiring utilities to ensure data centers cover additional operational costs. Meanwhile, local communities are already pushing back against electricity bill hikes caused by data center construction. In Oregon, a power company increased data center bills by 30% while cutting residential rates by 1.3%. Some hyperscalers are also moving off-grid or pledging to supply electricity to the grid to offset resident costs.