WASHINGTON — Under pressure to act on unpopular data centers, the House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation aimed at shielding consumers from higher energy costs when new data centers are built in their communities.The vote was 417-3.Because GOP leaders brought the bill to the floor under a fast-tracking procedure known as suspension, support from two-thirds of voting lawmakers was required.The bill, dubbed the Ratepayers Protection Act, is the only legislation related to artificial intelligence that was scheduled for a vote this week as Congress considers its response to dire warnings from some former AI employees about its dangers.With the House holding its final votes before the midterm elections on Wednesday evening, and the Senate only staying in Washington a few more weeks, not much more is expected to get done to address the AI issue until at least the post-election lame-duck session.03:08New poll on AI and data centers reveals how people feel on the topic00:0000:00The data center bill was co-sponsored by Reps.
Gabe Evans, R-Colo., and Kathy Castor, D-Fla., both members of the Energy and Commerce Committee.It aims to put the onus and responsibility on tech and data center companies — rather than consumers — to pay for power upgrades required to operate new large data centers.Specifically, the legislation would create a federal standard for state utility regulators to consider when creating rules for large, high-power data centers to cover the costs of power generation, transmission lines and other infrastructure upgrades needed to power these facilities, according to Evans.Data centers provide the computing power and storage for artificial intelligence.The Evans-Castor bill, however, does not address any of the recent warnings from AI researchers: that the fast-moving technology could cause human extinction.
And it’s unclear what the Senate will do with the bill, if anything.The upper chamber has its own set of data center bil...