Congressman Cleaver Votes for Legislation to Protect Missourians from Paying for Development of Data Centers

(Washington, D.C.) - Yesterday, U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO) voted in favor of the Ratepayer Protection Act to protect Missouri families from bearing the burden of increased costs for energy and grid upgrades required for the development of new data centers. The legislation was passed by the House of Representatives with a bipartisan majority.

The Ratepayer Protection Act requires state utility regulators to establish rules to ensure that community members do not pay for the costs of building new power generation, transmission lines, and other upgrades to serve large-load customers, including data centers. Without proper safeguards, families and small businesses in communities where data center development occurs could see higher electricity bills at the end of every month.

"At a time when Missouri families are already struggling to stay afloat, they should not have to bear the costs of data center development in the form of higher energy bills at the end of every month," said Congressman Cleaver. "This bipartisan legislation is a commonsense step to ensure that burden falls on the corporations building these projects, not the people of Missouri's Fifth District. However, I know there is more that Congress must do to protect the American people, which is why I will continue pushing for stronger safeguards that ensure Silicon Valley CEOs are not taking advantage of our communities."

The Ratepayer Protection Act would propose standards that state regulators could enforce when considering the integration of new large-load customers with a demand of 100 megawatts or more onto the grid. Those recommendations include:

• Recovery of the full incremental cost of upgrades by the large-load customer over a long period of time through a special rate charge or other agreements. This protects utilities and their ratepayers from being left responsible for upgrade costs associated with a large-load customer, even if that customer later reduces operations or leaves the system entirely.
• Financial assurances that require the large load customer to pay for any generation, transmission, or other infrastructure necessary to serve their load, protecting utilities and ratepayers from that financial burden. This ensures large-load customers are responsible for the fixed costs associated with serving their demand rather than passing those costs on to families and businesses through higher monthly electricity bills.

Official text of the Ratepayer Protection Act is available here.

Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri's Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee's Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Greenwood, Blue Springs, North Kansas City, Gladstone, and Claycomo. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance.