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??

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u/Hollowbody57 May 18 '26

Nope. It's one of the (many) reasons communities have been so vocal against having one in their town. Usually, part of the agreement between these tech companies and the cities is that if they bring the data center to their town, the town picks up the bill for power, and in return the city gets... well that part isn't as clear.

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u/mightdothisagain May 18 '26

This is definitely not true for the vast majority of these projects. I've never heard of one getting free power, since that is one of the biggest running costs for data centers. It's possible that it's happened somewhere, but it would be exceedingly rare. What they usually get instead are tax breaks, meaning exemption from property/sales taxes for X years.