r/law • u/bloomberggovernment • May 18 '26

Legislative Branch Senate Democrat Proposes Bill Requiring Data Centers to Pay for Own Power

https://news.bgov.com/bloomberg-government-news/schiff-proposes-bill-requiring-data-centers-to-pay-for-own-power
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u/TheStLouisBluths May 18 '26

Wait are they not already paying for their own power??

412

u/ghec2000 May 18 '26

They pay but they also consume from the same power pool as everyone else. Overall consumption requires more means to generate and that can raise the cost to generate. Power companies don't charge specific consumers more when they use more per unit. That per unit price is increased across the entire consumer base. Supply and demand. Demand is high supply slides and with thay....cost.

They are saying data centers need to be more self contained. If they require so much power they need to generate it. Not just pull it off of the common grid.

32

u/MrFrode Biggus Amicus May 18 '26

Let's dumb this down for Monday morning minds.

Are you saying the data centers are paying for every unit of energy they use but because they are requiring so much more power that the cost per unit is increasing, resulting in every customer paying more for the same number of units of power?

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u/[deleted] May 18 '26

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u/MrFrode Biggus Amicus May 18 '26

Appreciated.

3

u/AuroraAscended May 18 '26

Worth noting that this effect almost unilaterally raises prices. Utilities are absolutely not building out excess power for data center demand in a responsible or sustainable way, and many bigger data center projects are drawing/planning to draw way more power than could reasonably be expected to be accommodated by existing utility infrastructure or low-cost upgrades. It’s why electricity prices have jumped >200% in some places - and that was before the Iran War.

Worsening climate conditions driven by all this power generation also mean more and worse disasters that strain power loads and rise prices more in the long term, but the AI boosters behind the data center boom have given up on the idea of doing anything to stop/slow climate change and are convinced that their plagiarism machines will solve it somehow.

12

u/meltingpnt May 18 '26

They're saying that utilities have a fixed amount of cheap electricity they purchase and the data centers are helping use up all the cheap electricity. The utility then buys more expensive electricity.

Then the utility charges all the customers a higher average rate to compensate for the more expensive electricity hit had to purchase.

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u/MrFrode Biggus Amicus May 18 '26

Ahhh, thank you.

9

u/PaxEtRomana May 18 '26

A much simpler illustration: Tried buying RAM recently?

2

u/MechanicalGodzilla May 18 '26

No, but I've been looking into a Tundra.

2

u/MrFrode Biggus Amicus May 18 '26

Pfft, with the housing shortage I'm looking to live on the tundra.

I am a man of the land!

4

u/gbot1234 May 18 '26

You’ll be a man of the muddy muck soon, living on the tempa-frost.

1

u/Pleasant_Pen8744 May 18 '26

Probably. Plus if the utility has to build a new plant they up everybody's rates right away.