Newsletter
- Republican Senator Josh Hawley hopes to suspend the construction of new data centers nationwide until Congress takes measures to protect consumers from rising electricity prices.
- The Senate passed a procedural vote on Monday with 73 votes to 25, advancing the debate on a bipartisan bill. The bill will speed up the approval process for energy infrastructure and also require data centers to bear the additional costs of the power grid.
- The latest polls show that opposition to the expansion of data centers crosses party lines, but Holey has not yet proposed a detailed bill to suspend construction.
U.S. Republican Senator Josh Hawley hopes Congress will put a brake on the construction of new data centers, while at the same time, legislators are pushing for a bill aimed at making it easier to build the infrastructure that supports the AI craze in the United States.
On Wednesday, this senator from Missouri called for a nationwide pause and listed it as one of the five priorities for Senate Republicans in the six weeks before Democrats regain control of the Senate.
“Are Senate Republicans still thinking about what to do in the next 6 weeks?” Holley wrote on X. His suggestions included: suspending the construction of data centers, stopping funding for Planned Parenthood, and halting the gasoline tax, among other Republican priorities.
A spokesperson stated regarding the issuance of the Polit token that Holey hopes the federal government will pause it for now until Congress passes a "bill of rights" to assure taxpayers that there will be no increase in rates. Holey has not yet proposed detailed legislation specifying which projects will be halted or how long the freeze will last.
A data center is a facility filled with high-performance computers, used for training and running services such as ChatGPT. Building more AI systems means deploying more servers, which requires additional power and cooling equipment, and often necessitates upgrading the local power grid as well.
Holly wrote on X:
- Stop funding the Family Planning Association
- Suspend data center construction
- Suspension of gasoline tax
- Fund rural hospitals
- Save America Act
The scale of this issue explains the related concerns. According to data cited by the Pew Research Center, the electricity consumption of data centers in the United States is estimated to be 183 billion kilowatt-hours in 2024, and it may rise to 426 billion kilowatt-hours by 2030. In other words, the annual electricity demand could more than double within six years.
Congress has different plans.
On Monday, the Senate advanced the debate on the Bipartisan America Affordability and Employment Act with a vote of 73 to 25. This proposal has received support from members of both parties as well as from President Donald Trump's administration.
The bill will accelerate the federal review of energy projects and transmission lines, helping to bring new power supplies online more quickly. The bill will also require data center operators to pay for the additional grid costs incurred by their projects, rather than passing on these expenses to ordinary electricity users.
In reality, Congress is considering how to continue with construction without having household users bear the costs. Holly, on the other hand, is demanding that legislators stop any new construction until consumer protection measures are in place.
His stance is not entirely new. In February of this year, Holly, together with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, proposed the GRID Act, which seeks to require new data centers to obtain power from their own sources rather than relying on the existing power grid.
Today, he has joined the ranks of independent Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in publicly supporting a nationwide pause. Their proposed pause goes a step further, calling for the establishment of rules to address the impact of AI on workers, public safety, and the environment.
Cross-party backlash
Political winds are changing rapidly. In the elections on November 3rd, voters across the United States supported restrictions on data center development, including local bans, as well as measures that require public approval before construction can proceed.
An analysis released by the Pew Research Center on Wednesday showed that 60% of Americans are uneasy about the construction of new data centers in their areas, including 54% of Republicans and 68% of Democrats. Another survey found that 58% of respondents do not favor political leaders who support the construction of data centers near their homes.
Opponents are concerned about rising electricity costs, water consumption, and noise issues. Several cities have already implemented restrictions, while OpenAI has recently promised to cover the costs of electricity and the power grid for its future own-operated parks.
Industry supporters, however, see greater economic risks. Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, warned last month that construction halts could trigger an economic recession, as a large portion of current investments rely on AI infrastructure.
A freeze in construction at the federal level may delay the new computing power that AI company had originally planned to launch, as well as the power infrastructure built to support this computing power. Existing data centers may not necessarily be shut down as a result, but the scope of the suspension order proposed by Holy is still not clear.
Holly's appeal has not yet led to the freezing of any individual projects, nor has he stated whether he would support the legislation proposed by Sanders. For now, what the Senate is debating is legislation to speed up the approval process for infrastructure projects, rather than legislation to ban the construction of new data centers.
