ITHACA, NY (607NewsNow) – Congressman Josh Riley wants to stop data centers from driving up energy bills for Upstate New Yorkers and small businesses.
On July 13, Riley, along with Congressman Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, introduced the FAIR Data Act.
If passed, the legislation would help ensure that any costs associated with data center projects are paid by corporate consumers who are driving the demand.
“Upstate New Yorkers are already paying through the nose for electricity, and we shouldn’t have to pay a penny more so Big Tech can rake in record profits,” said Riley. “If out-of-state tech companies want to build data centers here, they can pay their own way – not stick upstate families with the bill.”
The move comes amid proposed developments across New York’s 19th Congressional District, including in Lansing and Oneonta.
Bill Provisions – Full Text Available Here.
- Ensure residential customers and small businesses are not forced to pay for electric grid upgrades needed to serve data centers
- Require investor-owned utilities to recover the costs of serving large data centers from those facilities – not everyday ratepayers
- Prohibit utilities from passing along costs of generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades built to accommodate large data centers (75+ MW) onto households and small businesses
- Ensure large corporate electricity users pay their own way instead of relying on cross-subsidies from residential customers
- Use the existing Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PUPRA) framework to require state utility regulators to review and implement this consumer-protection standard while preserving state ratemaking authority
- Require any data center claiming it will lower local electricity bills to report annually on whether those promised savings actually materialized
- Condition certain Department of Energy (DOE) administrative assistance on states certifying that data center costs are not shifted to residential and small business customers
- Require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to submit annual reports to Congress on how large data center electricity demand is affecting electric rates and grid reliability nationwide
“Artificial intelligence has the potential to do a lot of good for our country, but that growth must be handled responsibly,” said Congressman Van Drew. “Families and small businesses are already paying far too much for electricity, and they should not be hit with even higher bills because major data center projects require massive amounts of energy and new infrastructure. The FAIR Data Act makes sure the companies behind these projects cover those added costs instead of passing them on to ratepayers. I am proud to join Congressman Riley in putting the people we represent first.”
You can read more from Riley’s Office here.
In related news, Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order on July 14 to create first-in-the-nation statewide moratorium on data centers.
