Kathy Castor

Not analysed yet

A requested analysis is usually ready within half an hour; come back to this page or reload it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding the time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, the Ratepayer Protection Act. I am proud to lead this bipartisan bill with Congressman Evans to protect my neighbors from unfairly paying for the energy needs of large AI data centers. Mr. Speaker, all across America, families, farmers, and small business owners fear the arrival of their electric bill every month. Too many are struggling under the weight of soul-crushing energy bills, and it comes at a time especially where everything costs more--your groceries, gas, diesel, healthcare, and housing. Many of my neighbors back in the Tampa Bay area show me their electric bills. They are exorbitant, and it is gut-wrenching. They are not alone because across the country, electricity prices are up on average 15 percent, but much higher in many places. But now there is a new stressor: massive hyperscale data centers are connecting to the grid. These are energy hogs. They are massive. The descriptors know no end. When a data center or other large load comes online, it can trigger massive upgrades--new power plants, transmission lines, local transformers--and typically those costs are passed along to ratepayers, and that is not fair. Our neighbors should not be stuck paying for the energy infrastructure of the wealthiest countries in the world. The Ratepayer Protection Act says that the data center pays for its own upgrades, not the rest of us. These monumental hyperscale data centers can span hundreds of thousands of square feet. They host thousands of servers, computer storage, networks, and then they have these giant cooling systems that also require massive amounts of energy as well. Massive hyperscale data centers can continuously consume over 100 megawatts, with the largest facilities consuming over 650 megawatts. That is comparable to the energy use of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of homes. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, right now data centers consume about 4.4 percent of all electricity in America, but they predict that that will go up to 12 percent of the total electricity consumption in America by just 2028. Mr. Speaker, hyperscale data centers are being constructed by the wealthiest Big Tech corporations on the planet. As hardworking Americans are just trying to make ends meet, they shouldn't carry Big Tech's data center load as well. That is why we hammered out the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act, to ensure that data centers pay the full cost of their energy demand and upgrades. It says that if a company wants to build a data center, they should pay for the power and grid upgrades they need, not the rest of us. This bill will require those data centers to cover all the costs. It is an important first step. I know some people say this is not enough. It is not enough. It is not enough, but it does provide some first steps. Congress has to do more. We should set stricter requirements for States to report their progress to Congress so we can ensure the bill is enforced. We should incentivize data centers to be empowered by clean energy and prioritize projects that can reduce demand during peak hours. But notably, this bill does allow States to do some of those things. The States now can set additional specific guardrails. For example, States can require that data centers are powered by clean energy and don't damage local water supplies. They can require investments in grid-enhancing technologies or virtual power plants. States can even require that data centers fund weatherization initiatives or deployment of energy-saving batteries, rooftop solar, and heat pumps. For example, Virginia is requiring data centers to cover new transmission and distribution capacity costs. Minnesota requires data centers to pay into an energy conservation and weatherization fund to benefit working-class neighbors. Kansas incentivized data centers to participate in demand response programs to reduce peak demand. This bill also empowers local communities to make decisions on the siting and building of data centers. It allows for robust community input, not NDAs, nondisclosure agreements, where they try to sneak in. For example, in Florida, at least 20 counties and municipalities passed or discussed very strict guardrails on data centers. In my home county, Hillsborough County, many say that is not the appropriate place for a data center because we don't have the water resources and we don't have the electricity yet to do that. There are places in America that don't want them. We need to keep working on this, but this is a very important first step. These are the wealthiest corporations in America. There is no reason why the average American should be subsidizing their electricity upgrades and costs. I am eager to keep advancing bipartisan, real solutions to invest in our U.S. power grid, which is reaching the end of its useful life, which is also raising costs on Americans. We have just got to remain clear-eyed that right now our neighbors are suffering an affordability squeeze. They deserve so much better than what they are getting right now. This Ratepayer Protection Act is a good first start, but it is a modest first start. It is about fairness on this one. Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill.