A Senate Democrat is proposing a bill that would require large data centers to secure their own power in a bid to reduce energy costs.
Dubbed the Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act, Sen. Adam Schiff‘s (D-Calif.) bill is the latest effort in Congress to tackle energy affordability as Americans decry high electricity costs and power-hungry artificial intelligence data centers.
The bill requires data centers that are over 50 megawatts to bring their own power, a common call among Democrats and Republicans amid national pushback against data centers. President Donald Trump received pledges in March from large technology companies that they would secure their own electricity for data centers and pay for grid upgrades.
That would be a start. Then they should start billion dollar developmental programs for their host communities
sexeveg314 on
Trump will probably want to pay them a few hundred billion of our money to use coal and not wind or solar.
TheIrishbuddha on
Why is this so damn hard to do? It’s gonna be a back and forth for months on this. All the FrEe mArKetS booshit is gonna come into play.
XSinTrick6666 on
They can take their mini-nuclear-reactors to Mars – run all their broken AI models there.
WIN-WIN!
APraxisPanda on
They should also have to pay for their environmental footprint. These places are gonna cripple our environment like, multitudes worse than what we are already doing.
That said. Annoyingly the way our system works is that every win like this is short term. Even if Data Centers have to pay for their own power, give it like, 6 months and lobbyists will have that bill ripped up and silently undone once it’s out of sight and out of mind. These things only ever last for as long as public consciousness is concerned with it. The moment we move on they will jump to undo it- and thats even if we win at all. Its like, grooling work to fight for these bills, and easy as shit to undo them or create loopholes.
Imo, what we need most right now is to diminish corporate power in politics and fight for stronger labor power, or this type of shit will never get better.
Cosmic-Space-Octopus on
These data center builders who claim „It’s to beat China“ don’t seem to grasp that China can build them because they actually have/ build / improve the infrastructure to do so.
CowTown-Mike on
That’s a novel idea. Pay your own bills. I taught my kids that.
pcpelste on
Go further. Require that all power be fully generated by renewable or low carbon sources.
Many end customers are companies with trillion dollar market values, and they could become players in the renewable sector.
jared__ on
and water…
spewing_honey_badger on
Why limit it to “large” data centers? Make it all of them. Fuck this, we’re tired.
ExcitingRound4990 on
How about all data centers?
Why is there always a „but“ with these criminals?
AlanShore60607 on
Why would they not?
10v1 on
We can’t have that, those precious data centers need every penny in profit they can get their greedy little hands on. Making them pay for their own power means their CEO won’t get a new yacht this year, he’ll have to wait til next year.
PanicSwtchd on
It would be nice but then you’ll end up with more situations like Lake Tahoe. DC Providers made deals with Utilities and then the Utility decides that they will drop Consumer clients en masse and provide to the DC instead.
You’ll end up with Microsoft and Google going to a Utility and buying all the output from a particular powerplant. Microsoft will then show that they have provided their own power for a project while consumers will be left with increased power costs because the Utility now has less power to go around and may decide to not build more plants.
blu-bells on
Pause. Hold on. They’re not paying for their own power? I fucking pay for my own power. What makes these leeches so fucking special?
azlmichael on
They will melt the ice caps no matter who pays for the power.
Wauwuaw5983 on
AI data centers need to be off the power grid, and forced to reclaim at least 97% of water used for cooling.
saltyhasp on
The data center thing should be evaluated based on the cost/benefits to the community. Electricity should be charged at marginal cost rate (local residents should not be paying for it), they should not be allowed to use their backup generators for electricity expect in emergencies (that is increase noise and decrease air quality), and they should not be using large amounts of water because this is just bad design.
This is the same problem that crypto has had on local communities, but way more massive.
JupiterInTheSky on
Insane that that’s not just a given. If I have to pay for my power how TF are they just not
sprodigy2 on
isn’t this common sense? Who would oppose this? The average American gets $0 from an AI data center’s existence
mattjf22 on
I use more electricity my bill goes up. Data centers use more electricity my bill goes up.
We live in an oligarchy. Wealthy business owners just push costs onto tax payers
Corgi_Koala on
It makes sense though. If you can spend $10bn on a data center you can add in another $1bn for energy production. Add in solar and wind.
Lonely_Noyaaa on
Regular ratepayers shouldn’t be subsidizing the AI boom with higher electric bills. If tech companies want to build these energy-sucking data centers, they can foot the bill for the grid upgrades themselves and its crazy that this even needs to be a law.
furnace9monkey on
About time
shoulda-known-better on
I don’t understand why a private company would ever not have to pay for all this shit
jol72 on
Note that some of them do that and they always choose the cheapest and fastest energy solution which ends up being dirty diesel generators.
Bishopjones2112 on
And why the fuck wouldn’t they
Aggressive_Manner531 on
Should be SUPPLY their own power. Would probably boost green energy.
lunar_adjacent on
All states and cities need to put a moratorium on data centers until all of this can be properly regulated. It is the Wild West out here and the developers are trying to push as much infrastructure as they can before they’re stopped.
SectorLeader on
If AI is on our power grid, they will probably get the low tier cheaper energy and the sucker tax payers will get the high tier expensive energy.
oldcreaker on
Amazing that we’d need a law requiring a business to pay for its own power. Apparently data centers get a pass on bootstraps and we’re all supposed to kick in and help them profit?
badgersoccer1905 on
Nobrainer
Killersavage on
I love these self made billionaires that need all these handouts to make their billions.
blueturtle00 on
Wait, do these businesses not pay their own electric bills ?
LetMePushTheButton on
When the Republicans inevitably vote this down, never forget to oppose any claims they make that they bring investment/ benefits/ or “jobs” to the community.
They are leeches. And i wouldnt be surprised if they figured out a way to convince local authorities to create a fund (or even a tax) for their development, similar to how sports stadiums are built on the backs of the locals instead of the billionaire owner.
thehouse1751 on
Why does this even have to be a bill? Why doesn’t everyone pay for their power use? If anything the situation should be flipped. Tax payers already paid for all the infrastructure. Corporations should be paying for access to our infrastructure
Majestic_Pomelo_8169 on
What the fuck!? They dont have to pay their electricity bill? How the fuck did they negotiate that?
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A Senate Democrat is proposing a bill that would require large data centers to secure their own power in a bid to reduce energy costs.
Dubbed the Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act, Sen. Adam Schiff‘s (D-Calif.) bill is the latest effort in Congress to tackle energy affordability as Americans decry high electricity costs and power-hungry artificial intelligence data centers.
The bill requires data centers that are over 50 megawatts to bring their own power, a common call among Democrats and Republicans amid national pushback against data centers. President Donald Trump received pledges in March from large technology companies that they would secure their own electricity for data centers and pay for grid upgrades.
Read more at the full [story](https://news.bgov.com/bloomberg-government-news/schiff-proposes-bill-requiring-data-centers-to-pay-for-own-power?utm_source=reddit.com&utm_medium=bgov).
-Elliot
That would be a start. Then they should start billion dollar developmental programs for their host communities
Trump will probably want to pay them a few hundred billion of our money to use coal and not wind or solar.
Why is this so damn hard to do? It’s gonna be a back and forth for months on this. All the FrEe mArKetS booshit is gonna come into play.
They can take their mini-nuclear-reactors to Mars – run all their broken AI models there.
WIN-WIN!
They should also have to pay for their environmental footprint. These places are gonna cripple our environment like, multitudes worse than what we are already doing.
That said. Annoyingly the way our system works is that every win like this is short term. Even if Data Centers have to pay for their own power, give it like, 6 months and lobbyists will have that bill ripped up and silently undone once it’s out of sight and out of mind. These things only ever last for as long as public consciousness is concerned with it. The moment we move on they will jump to undo it- and thats even if we win at all. Its like, grooling work to fight for these bills, and easy as shit to undo them or create loopholes.
Imo, what we need most right now is to diminish corporate power in politics and fight for stronger labor power, or this type of shit will never get better.
These data center builders who claim „It’s to beat China“ don’t seem to grasp that China can build them because they actually have/ build / improve the infrastructure to do so.
That’s a novel idea. Pay your own bills. I taught my kids that.
Go further. Require that all power be fully generated by renewable or low carbon sources.
Many end customers are companies with trillion dollar market values, and they could become players in the renewable sector.
and water…
Why limit it to “large” data centers? Make it all of them. Fuck this, we’re tired.
How about all data centers?
Why is there always a „but“ with these criminals?
Why would they not?
We can’t have that, those precious data centers need every penny in profit they can get their greedy little hands on. Making them pay for their own power means their CEO won’t get a new yacht this year, he’ll have to wait til next year.
It would be nice but then you’ll end up with more situations like Lake Tahoe. DC Providers made deals with Utilities and then the Utility decides that they will drop Consumer clients en masse and provide to the DC instead.
You’ll end up with Microsoft and Google going to a Utility and buying all the output from a particular powerplant. Microsoft will then show that they have provided their own power for a project while consumers will be left with increased power costs because the Utility now has less power to go around and may decide to not build more plants.
Pause. Hold on. They’re not paying for their own power? I fucking pay for my own power. What makes these leeches so fucking special?
They will melt the ice caps no matter who pays for the power.
AI data centers need to be off the power grid, and forced to reclaim at least 97% of water used for cooling.
The data center thing should be evaluated based on the cost/benefits to the community. Electricity should be charged at marginal cost rate (local residents should not be paying for it), they should not be allowed to use their backup generators for electricity expect in emergencies (that is increase noise and decrease air quality), and they should not be using large amounts of water because this is just bad design.
This is the same problem that crypto has had on local communities, but way more massive.
Insane that that’s not just a given. If I have to pay for my power how TF are they just not
isn’t this common sense? Who would oppose this? The average American gets $0 from an AI data center’s existence
I use more electricity my bill goes up. Data centers use more electricity my bill goes up.
We live in an oligarchy. Wealthy business owners just push costs onto tax payers
It makes sense though. If you can spend $10bn on a data center you can add in another $1bn for energy production. Add in solar and wind.
Regular ratepayers shouldn’t be subsidizing the AI boom with higher electric bills. If tech companies want to build these energy-sucking data centers, they can foot the bill for the grid upgrades themselves and its crazy that this even needs to be a law.
About time
I don’t understand why a private company would ever not have to pay for all this shit
Note that some of them do that and they always choose the cheapest and fastest energy solution which ends up being dirty diesel generators.
And why the fuck wouldn’t they
Should be SUPPLY their own power. Would probably boost green energy.
All states and cities need to put a moratorium on data centers until all of this can be properly regulated. It is the Wild West out here and the developers are trying to push as much infrastructure as they can before they’re stopped.
If AI is on our power grid, they will probably get the low tier cheaper energy and the sucker tax payers will get the high tier expensive energy.
Amazing that we’d need a law requiring a business to pay for its own power. Apparently data centers get a pass on bootstraps and we’re all supposed to kick in and help them profit?
Nobrainer
I love these self made billionaires that need all these handouts to make their billions.
Wait, do these businesses not pay their own electric bills ?
When the Republicans inevitably vote this down, never forget to oppose any claims they make that they bring investment/ benefits/ or “jobs” to the community.
They are leeches. And i wouldnt be surprised if they figured out a way to convince local authorities to create a fund (or even a tax) for their development, similar to how sports stadiums are built on the backs of the locals instead of the billionaire owner.
Why does this even have to be a bill? Why doesn’t everyone pay for their power use? If anything the situation should be flipped. Tax payers already paid for all the infrastructure. Corporations should be paying for access to our infrastructure
What the fuck!? They dont have to pay their electricity bill? How the fuck did they negotiate that?