The FAIR Data Act prohibits investor-owned electric utilities regulated by states from passing the costs of serving large data centers on to residential and small business customers through higher electricity rates. The bill specifically targets data centers with peak electricity demand exceeding 75 megawatts, preventing utilities from recovering any costs associated with building or upgrading power generation, transmission, or distribution infrastructure to meet these facilities' demands. State regulatory authorities have six months to begin considering this new standard and one year to make a final determination on how to implement it, though states that have already addressed this issue are exempt from the requirement. Additionally, the bill conditions Department of Energy funding to states on their certification that data center costs will not be shifted to residential customers, and it requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to submit annual reports to Congress on how large data centers affect electricity rates and grid reliability. The legislation aims to prevent large tech companies and data center operators from passing their infrastructure costs to everyday consumers.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.