A bipartisan effort to shield Americans from electricity costs linked to the AI data center boom stalled in the Senate. Sen. Martin Heinrich on Thursday blocked an attempt by Sen. Jon Husted to pass the Ratepayer Protection Act through unanimous consent. The setback came just one day after the House overwhelmingly approved the legislation 417-3.
The bill would require states to consider standards designed to make large electricity users, including data centers, cover the incremental cost of new power generation, transmission and other grid infrastructure needed to serve them. However, it would leave implementation largely in the hands of individual states rather than imposing a binding federal requirement.
Heinrich argued that approach does not go far enough. Instead, he pushed his GRID Savings Act, which would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission more authority over the interconnection of large electricity loads and create federal requirements intended to ensure major users pay for upgrades triggered by their demand. Sen. Bernie Moreno objected to Heinrich’s attempt to advance that legislation.
(Source: heinrich.senate.gov)
AI Data Centers Put Growing Pressure on the Grid
The dispute is becoming more important as AI companies race to build very power-hungry infrastructure.
A 2026 update from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that US data centers could consume around 11.8% of the country’s electricity by 2030, with scenarios ranging from 9.5% to 15.3%. Its reference case estimates consumption of roughly 649 terawatt-hours in 2030.
The Department of Energy has also warned that additional transmission infrastructure is urgently needed as data centers, manufacturing and other large loads drive electricity demand higher.
That puts the cost of connecting new AI infrastructure at the center of an important economic debate. Both Husted and Heinrich want large data centers to bear more of those costs, but their proposals differ a lot over whether protections should primarily be implemented through state-level standards or stronger federal requirements.