WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, Daily on Energy readers! Did you know you can watch brown bears feasting on salmon, puffins sunbathing, tigers deep in slumber, and schools of fish swimming along colorful reefs all for free and live as it happens? Explore.org has dozens of live environmental and nature streams available every day. You can check out the different cams here. Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner energy and environment writers Callie Patteson (@CalliePatteson) and Maydeen Merino (@MaydeenMerino). Email cpatteson@washingtonexaminer dot com or mmerino@washingtonexaminer dot com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.House lawmakers advanced the Ratepayer Protection Act out of committee, requiring large-load users such as data centers to cover energy costs and grid upgrades.
As part of a two-day markup hearing, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously voted the bill out of committee today. The bill is aimed at ensuring households do not bear the added electricity costs from data centers. The bill, which was proposed by Republican Rep. Gabe Evans of Colorado and Democrat Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida, would require state regulators to create standards for new data centers and hyperscalers that consume over 100 megawatts of electricity to cover the costs of new generation, transmission, and infrastructure upgrades.Although the bill has bipartisan support, some Democrats have said that the bill is just the first steps toward addressing the issues related to data centers. During the hearing, Democrat Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado said that the bill fails to address water consumption by the data centers, citing that western states face droughts. Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio yesterday introduced a companion bill in the Senate. The legislation mirrors the White House ratepayer protection pledge, through which several big tech companies vowed to cover the energy costs associated with data centers. Read more by Maydeen here. More on data centers: A new poll released by Politico and Public First today revealed that more than half of Democratic voters in the U.S. say they are opposed to data centers being developed in the communities – though support is dropping across the political spectrum. Quick numbers: From January to July, the share of Republican voters surveyed that oppose data centers being built within 3 miles of their home increased from 26% to 33%. Democratic opposition also jumped from 33% to 53% in the same timeframe. About 41% of all those surveyed are opposed to local data centers, while just 24% support local development. In January, 28% were opposed, while 37% were in support. Read more from the Examiner’s Molly Parks here. DEMOCRAT NEGOTIATORS TALK PERMITTING:
