Sec. 2. Sense of Congress
516 words·~2 min read·
/bill/119/s/3682/is/section-2A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
It is the sense of Congress that— because of current energy policies and electricity market structures, households and businesses are subsidizing data center development, paying the way for data centers through rising energy bills; recent analysis indicates that data centers are set to more than double their electricity consumption, accounting for 6.7 percent to 12 percent of all energy demand by 2028, which is causing electricity prices to increase for ratepayers; ratepayers should not be forced to take on the financial risks and costs of new infrastructure investments needed to support projected data center energy demands; data center owners and operators should be held accountable for the increased energy costs that data centers are causing; the uniquely large size, rapidly increasing pace, and uncertain nature of projected energy demand from data centers are impacting both grid reliability and the affordability of electricity; energy demand from data centers is also significantly impacting interstate commerce by putting a strain on the electric grid and causing reliability issues and energy costs to rise across State lines; and therefore, increased Federal oversight is necessary to ensure that the interconnection of data centers to the electric grid does not create reliability or affordability risks; data centers directly affect the transmission system and can increase transmission costs, regardless of whether they are connected directly to transmission facilities; any policy solutions seeking to hold data center owners and operators accountable as described in paragraph
(4)should also seek to minimize the climate and environmental impacts of data center development while creating good-paying jobs; the Commission has authority, pursuant to the mandates to ensure just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory rates (as established under sections 205 and 206 of the Federal Power Act ( 16 U.S.C. 824d , 824e) (including the standards developed under those sections)) and grid reliability (as established under section 215 of that Act ( 16 U.S.C. 824o ) (including the standards developed under that section)), to require grid operators to create load queues for data centers that incentivize certain practices, including payment for required system upgrades and voluntary load flexibility; grid operators, as part of their mandate to provide reliable transmission service, have the authority to create load queues specific to data centers that delay or deny interconnection in order to ensure reliability, and it is not unduly discriminatory to do so under the Federal Power Act ( 16 U.S.C. 791a et seq. ) because data centers, as a single customer class, constitute enough new load to overwhelm the electric grid if their interconnection to the electric grid is left unchecked; and some States are implementing processes to create rate classes specific to data centers, which are necessary to protect ratepayers from unfair costs and unnecessary risk, given the uncertain nature of data center energy demand projections and the high costs associated with the energy demands of data centers; and rate classes specific to data centers should be adopted more broadly across all States to help ensure that, across the United States, energy system cost increases caused by data centers are paid for by data center owners and operators.
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