WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill that attempts to address voters’ concerns about data centers and their impact on energy costs failed to advance in the Senate Wednesday, the victim of an election-year conflict over how best to address a growing concern.
Before leaving Washington to campaign, Senate Republicans reserved one of the chamber’s final votes for a bill they hoped would highlight efforts to address the impact of data centers on voters’ monthly energy bills. The bill needed 60 votes to advance, but it failed, 57-43.
The bill is modest. That requires utility regulators to consider adopting a federal standard that charges large electricity customers a rate that covers the cost of system upgrades needed to serve them. Democrats say this is a suggestion and more needs to be done. Republicans say the bill sends a message to regulators to act.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jon Husted, a Republican from Ohio, is in a tough spot. tough re-election battle and was referred to in campaign ads as the “face of data centers” by his Democratic challenger, former Sen. Sherrod Brown.
“You all know this is the only game you can play,” Husted told reporters in advocating for his bill. “Passing this bill is the only way we have a chance to prove to the American people, before the midterm elections, whose side you are on.”
Senate Democrats say bill isn’t tough enough
The measure pass the House by a vote of 417 to 3. He needed the support of at least seven Democratic senators to make the final vote, but that did not happen given criticism from their ranks that the bill does not go far enough and knowing that its passage could provide a boost to Husted’s re-election prospects.
“The bill is a fraud, pure and simple,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
Democrats have offered competing proposals. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. sponsored legislation that would direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue rules for large electricity customers that would require them to pay for necessary grid upgrades.
“They want it to be optional, which means zero. We want it to be mandatory,” Schumer said.
Republicans seek to position Democrats as obstructionists who block progress on voters’ top concerns. Husted’s bill is an example. Another would be the bill from Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., that would prohibit members of Congress from buying individual stocks. The issue is popular with candidates running for office this election cycle, but it also includes voter ID requirements that Democrats have called a poison pill.
Thune put both bills up for procedural votes and both failed to reach the 60-vote threshold to advance.
“Both pieces of legislation strike at the very heart of issues that matter deeply and passionately to the American people, and we’ll see if Democrats are willing to take yes for an answer,” Thune said.
Data centers have become a major campaign issue
Both the House and Senate are expected to be out of session for the entire month of October. The House recessed in mid-September, canceling nearly two weeks of votes, with Republicans eager to hit the campaign trail to try to maintain their majority in the next Congress.
President Donald Trump has embraced building more data centers, but there are growing distrust on the part of voters. About 6 in 10 Americans favor limiting the number of new data centers that can be built, including most Democrats and Republicans.
And a majority of Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the impact of data centers on electricity prices or water supplies in the communities where they are built.
In Ohio, a data center hot spot with hotly contested races for governor and U.S. Senate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned in a recent note, Husted risks losing his seat because of the centers. Husted helped promote Ohio as a data center destination while serving as lieutenant governor.
The Ohio race is seen as key to determining control of the Senate, helping to explain why the data center bill has received so much attention and is so hotly contested despite the overwhelming vote it received in the House.
Speaking on the Senate floor before the vote, Husted said the bill requires states to at least address the problem of data centers paying for their own electricity and the grid improvements needed to serve them. He said the bill would be hard-pressed to gain broader support than in the House, but that by blocking the bill in the Senate, Democrats would show they don’t care about the affordability issue.
“Let’s hold data centers accountable and stop blocking the path to affordability,” Husted said.
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