Data centers must now pay their own grid costs, not your electric bill

What it does

This bill requires large data centers (those using over 50 megawatts of electricity) to pay the full cost of grid upgrades and new power plants needed to support their operations, rather than spreading those costs to residential and small business customers. It also gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to set data center electricity rates, bans nondisclosure agreements that would prevent public officials from discussing data center construction impacts, and directs the EPA to study environmental and health effects of data centers.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core mechanism is a cost-allocation rule: it shifts infrastructure costs from general ratepayers to the data centers that trigger them. It is not deregulation or a subsidy; it is a reallocation of burden to the party creating the demand.

What the text implies

• The 50 MW threshold may exclude smaller data centers and edge-computing facilities, creating a regulatory gap for mid-sized operators and potentially incentivizing fragmentation of large facilities into sub-50 MW units to avoid FERC oversight.
• FERC's new rate-setting authority over retail sales is unusual — FERC traditionally regulates wholesale markets and transmission; this expands its jurisdiction into retail utility regulation, which may create tension with state utility commissions.
• The prohibition on nondisclosure agreements applies only to public officials, not to private citizens or community members; data centers may still silence private residents through settlement NDAs.
• The bill exempts electric cooperatives, state/municipal utilities, TVA, and federal power marketing administrations from FERC oversight, creating a patchwork where data centers in some regions face full-cost allocation and in others do not.
• The $10 million per-day civil penalty for section 224 violations is among the highest in the Federal Power Act, signaling aggressive enforcement intent but also creating regulatory uncertainty for utilities navigating new rate-setting rules.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Ordinary residential and small commercial electricity customers are protected from bearing the infrastructure costs imposed by large data centers; those costs are now borne by the data centers themselves. The bill also increases transparency by voiding nondisclosure agreements that would have kept public officials silent about data center impacts, and mandates an environmental health assessment.

Who stands to gain

• residential electricity customers (protected from cost-shifting)
• small commercial electricity customers (protected from cost-shifting)

Named in the bill

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Federal Power Act, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, electric cooperatives, state and municipal utilities, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), federal power marketing administrations, data centers (>50 MW peak demand)

Where it stands

1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.

• Mar 20, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Mar 20, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $2,280,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 39 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.

Greg Landsman, the sponsor, reported $1,006,728 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Duke Energy Corporation — $2,280,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.