US Republicans plan to accelerate legislation requiring AI data centers to "pay their own electricity bills."

U.S. Senate Republicans are considering accelerating the legislative process to push through a bill ahead of the November election. The bill aims to address the impact of power-hungry data centers and demonstrate to voters the efforts lawmakers are making to curb rising energy costs for consumers.

According to Bloomberg, the House of Representatives is expected to pass the bipartisan bill with broad support as early as Tuesday, which would guide states to consider mandating that data centers bear the cost of their massive power consumption.

The Ratepayer Protection Act (HR 9340) aims to enact the "Ratepayer Protection Pledge" proposed by the White House earlier this year. This pledge has received support from several technology companies.

The "rate payer protection commitment" means that data centers pay for their own electricity and bear the cost of infrastructure upgrades, thus avoiding passing on the costs to ordinary households and businesses.

The Senate version of the bill was introduced by Ohio Republican Senator Jon Huster, who is currently running a close race against former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican senator from South Dakota, said this week that senators will "seriously examine" the legislation and explore whether it can be pushed forward through "unanimous consent." Given the tight Senate agenda and other legislative matters, such a process may be necessary to move the bill forward.

With the November election just three weeks away, the Senate has only three weeks of sessions scheduled, and its agenda includes approving the president's nominee and considering legislation related to college sports.

Over the past few months, as the number of data centers has rapidly increased, backlash from local communities across the United States has intensified significantly. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Washington have introduced legislation seeking to strike a balance between data center expansion, the demands of artificial intelligence development, environmental concerns, and the additional strain on the power grid.

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