Sponsors
Introduced March 20, 2026 by Greg Landsman · Last progress March 20, 2026
The bill protects households and small customers by shifting data-center interconnection and upgrade costs onto large data centers and increases transparency and planning clarity, but it raises costs for large data centers, centralizes federal oversight (reducing state control), and creates administrative, legal, and confidentiality risks that could slow projects and impose new costs.
Residential and small-business electricity customers (households and local shops) are protected from having data center connection and upgrade costs shifted onto their bills, preserving household budgets.
Data centers paying the full costs to connect and upgrade transmission, distribution, and generation infrastructure incentivizes more efficient siting and demand management and reduces strain on the grid, benefiting utilities and overall grid reliability.
A clear federal standard with FERC oversight and consistent definitions provides regulatory certainty for utilities, developers, and project planners about rate treatment and interconnection rules.
Operators of large data centers (peak >50 MW) will face substantially higher upfront and ongoing costs to pay for interconnection and grid upgrades, which could reduce local investment and slow data center development.
Utilities might still recover some costs through tariffs or other mechanisms, meaning non-data-center businesses and households could indirectly face higher rates despite the bill’s allocation rules.
Federalizing retail-rate approval and creating a federal overlay for data-center rate treatment reduces state and local control over electricity pricing for a significant customer class, risking conflicts with state energy policy.
Based on analysis of 12 sections of legislative text.
Gives FERC authority over retail rates for large data centers, requires data centers to pay full grid-upgrade costs, adds penalties, bans certain NDAs for public officials, and orders an EPA/National Academies study.
Gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) exclusive authority to approve retail electric rates charged by covered utilities to large data centers and requires those data centers to pay the full costs of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrades needed for interconnection or reliability. It creates civil penalties for violations, forbids enforcing predispute nondisclosure clauses against public officials in data-center construction matters, and directs the EPA to contract with the National Academies to study environmental and public-health impacts of data centers and recommend mitigations within 180 days.