By KEVIN FREKING<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The House overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday that aims to have artificial intelligence data centers pay for their substantial energy needs as lawmakers used what was expected to be their final day in Washington before the midterm elections to address a growing voter concern.<\/a><\/p>\n The legislation would require state utility regulators to consider a standard by which utilities charge data centers for the full cost of the new power and transmission upgrades needed to serve them. The bill passed by a vote of 417-3.<\/p>\n Supporters of the bill described the legislation as a \u201cmodest first start\u201d in protecting families and businesses from higher utility bills. Ultimately, state public utility commissions have broad flexibility to adopt or reject federal standards when establishing rates.<\/p>\n \u201cI promise that this bill is not the end of our focus on these issues. It\u2019s only the beginning,\u201d said Rep. Frank Pallone, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.<\/p>\n Some lawmakers are calling for a full moratorium<\/a> on AI data centers until safeguards are put in place that ensure AI is safe and effective and that the data centers don\u2019t increase utility prices or harm the environment. Meanwhile, more than 100 Democrats signed onto a letter this week that called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to keep the House in session this month until Congress advances meaningful artificial intelligence safeguards.<\/p>\n The debate over the bill offered different views on the merits of data centers. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said the development of a data center in Richland Parish in his home state generated bonuses of up to $50,000 for local teachers as a result of increased tax collections.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are the stories you\u2019re seeing in communities that have embraced it,\u201d Scalise said.<\/p>\n But Pallone said Americans have real concerns about what data centers will mean for them, adding that President Donald Trump and Republican congressional leaders have swept those concerns to the side.<\/a> He noted that Trump posted on social media that communities opposed to data centers must want to end up being \u201cbackwards and poor.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe president in my opinion is out of touch on this issue and the American people are demanding action,\u201d Pallone said.<\/p>\n Nearly two-thirds of Americans are extremely or very concerned<\/a> about data centers\u2019 impact on energy prices and 57% are extremely or very concerned about the impact on water supplies, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research<\/a> and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., the bill\u2019s sponsor, said the U.S. can either build out its power systems to meet demand or become dependent on countries like China for its digital infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot accelerate this growth on the back of Americans working hard to pay their electric bills at the end of the month,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By KEVIN FREKING WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The House overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday that aims to have artificial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[19628,27284,74,76,75,16750],"class_list":["post-466171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-data-centers","tag-energy-costs","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-us-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}