NEWS: Sen. Schiff Unveils Major Legislation to Ensure Fair and Affordable Energy Costs for Americans Amid Data Center Buildouts

Schiff's Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act would protect Americans from rising energy costs while strengthening grid reliability

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) announced new major legislation, the Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act, to ensure that Americans are not saddled with rising energy costs, and that private companies pay their fair share for energy they consume and necessary grid infrastructure upgrades to protect against blackouts.

The legislation comes as the American energy grid undergoes a once-in-a-generation increase in demand. Americans are facing rapidly rising electricity rates as the costs of new energy infrastructure required by the buildout of AI data centers are being passed on to consumers.

"Our nation is witnessing a generational increase in energy demand with the buildout of data centers, and hard-working Americans should not be left to foot the tab for rising energy costs," said Senator Schiff. "My Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act would protect ratepayers from rising costs by ensuring that companies are paying their fair share for their energy use and implementing critical modernizations to ensure we can protect against blackouts. Artificial Intelligence is already deeply impacting our society, economy, and national security, and it is critical that we maintain our international leadership - however that growth cannot come at the cost of consumers or society. There needs to be guardrails that protect Americans' pocketbooks."

The Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

(FERC) and transmission providers the authorities and tools needed to shield consumers from rising energy costs, maintain resource adequacy, and avoid blackouts, while ensuring that America can continue to lead the world in technological innovation. It would also direct and empower our national labs to take a hard look at this problem, collect the data they need, and report back to Congress on what their scientists and engineers think we can do better.

Specifically, Schiff's Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act would:

• Require energy-intensive facilities like data centers to agree to be flexible with their energy demand and bring their own power as conditions for connecting to the transmission grid; and prioritize projects that use battery storage systems. These policies reduce grid strain and obviate the need to build additional grid infrastructure, eliminating electric bill increases for American households.
• Require large load facilities like data centers to be responsible for 100 percent of the grid network upgrades needed to deliver power to them so that those costs are not shifted to others and requires large load facilities to pay for grid reliability services if they benefit from such services. 
• Direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to update transmission policies to allow energy-intensive facilities like data centers to dial down their demand during peak energy consumption periods (non-firm transmission service) and pump any excess power they generate back onto the grid for others to use, thus driving down costs. These policy changes would also allow grid operators to reduce the amount of energy going to data centers during peak demand periods (curtailment).
• Block energy-intensive facilities like data centers from siphoning power from existing power plants that are serving the American public.
• Update grid forecasting and the process to apply for a grid interconnection to deter speculative, non-serious projects from messing up grid forecasts and clogging up the line to connect to the grid for everyone else.
• Utilize Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratory expertise for research and development by directing them to collect data, analyze energy usage patterns, and submit recommendations to Congress on reducing energy consumption

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