With the AI industry experiencing rapid growth, political disputes over the electricity consumption of data centers in the United States keep intensifying. Recently, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Electricity Ratepayer Protection Act, with 417 votes in favor and only 3 against. This bipartisan legislation is designed to stop the costs of power infrastructure linked to the construction of AI data centers from being transferred to regular residents and small-to-medium-sized businesses. The act mandates that state utility regulatory bodies set standards for charging data centers the complete costs of infrastructure, encompassing new power generation as well as transmission and distribution upgrades.
