Bipartisan bill fails to protect US consumers from datacenters’ true costs, critics warn
Summary
A new bipartisan bill called the Ratepayer Protection Act aims to limit electricity price increases caused by datacenters. However, consumer groups say it mostly helps big tech companies and utilities, and does not protect everyday electricity users from rising costs or other environmental impacts.Key Facts
- The Ratepayer Protection Act is meant to protect people from higher electricity bills due to datacenters.
- The bill’s measures are mostly voluntary, so state utility regulators can choose to ignore it.
- It includes benefits that make it easier and faster for datacenters to connect to the electric grid.
- Electricity prices in areas with many datacenters have gone up by 267% over five years.
- Datacenters use a lot of energy and water and can pollute and strain local infrastructure.
- The bill does not address these environmental and community costs.
- Some groups want to pause new datacenter projects until protections are improved.
- The bill would reduce environmental reviews, speeding up datacenter construction.
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