By Richard Cowan and Nichola Groom
WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) – The US Senate on Wednesday blocked legislation requiring state utility regulators to consider whether large electricity users, including data centers, should bear the incremental costs of power infrastructure built to serve them and thus ease the burden on households.
Senators voted 57-43 to advance the Ratepayer Protection Act, with only four Democrats voting for it. The measure needed at least 60 affirmative votes to clear a Senate procedural hurdle.
Senate Republicans had aimed to improve their prospects in the November mid-term elections by voting on the legislation, the first to address the economic concerns linked to the expansion of data centers that support artificial intelligence.
Polls show broad opposition to data centers despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s support for their development. Republicans are hoping to retain control of the Senate in the November 3 mid-term elections. They currently hold a 53-47 majority.
Democrats said the legislation does not go far enough to protect consumers from soaring electricity bills.
The bill’s failure, on the heels of a Senate defeat of unrelated legislation imposing new controls on Congress members’ stock trades, nonetheless gives Republicans a new line of attack against Democrats in the closing weeks of the November 3 midterm election campaigns.
The Ratepayer Protection Act passed the House of Representatives on Sept. 16 in a 417-3 vote.
Senate Republicans chose to take up the bill at the behest of Senator Jon Husted, who is trailing the Democratic candidate, former Senator Sherrod Brown, in Ohio, a state US President Donald Trump won by more than 11 points in 2024.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said Republicans were “putting a bill they know will fail to try and secure political points instead of delivering real relief.”
“While Americans are demanding real guardrails on AI and data centers, Republicans are offering a toothless messaging bill,” Schumer said.
Democrats have proposed the GRID Savings Act, which would require large data centers to pay the full cost of grid upgrades needed to serve them.
Republican Husted told reporters on Tuesday that the bill “gives us a chance to prove to the American people that we’re for lower electricity prices and holding data centers accountable.”
(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Nichola Groom; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Susan Heavey)
