Congress blocks utilities from charging you for data-center power upgrades
H.R. 9655 — FAIR Data Act · Filed by Josh Riley (D-NY) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 13, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends federal utility law to prohibit investor-owned electric utilities from passing the costs of serving large data centers (those using more than 75 megawatts of power) to residential and small business customers through their electric rates. Instead, data centers must bear their own infrastructure costs. States have one year to adopt this standard, and utilities claiming data centers will lower consumer bills must now prove it annually.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to prevent cost-shifting from data centers to residential ratepayers by establishing a new PURPA standard. It is fundamentally a consumer protection measure within utility regulation, not a data-center subsidy or deregulation.
What the text implies
- Data centers may respond by negotiating direct power purchase agreements with utilities or seeking alternative energy sources, potentially fragmenting the grid and reducing cross-subsidies that historically benefited all customers.
- States with weak regulatory capacity may struggle to enforce the standard or verify data-center claims about consumer savings, creating enforcement gaps.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
residential electric consumers; small business electric consumers