This bipartisan commonsense legislation ensures the companies creating new demand for electricity pay for the infrastructure they require-not Colorado families, farmers, seniors, and small businesses. I'm proud to see the swift advancement of the Ratepayer Protection Act through committee, and I look forward to its final passage in the House.
I will support final House passage of the Ratepayer Protection Act to require large-load data center customers to pay the full incremental cost of energy infrastructure upgrades needed to serve them instead of passing those costs to ratepayers.
Occurrences
Gabe Evans’ bipartisan legislation protecting ratepayers from rising costs associated with the increased energy demand will receive a vote next week — marking one of the final bills to be considered by the House prior to the midterm elections. The bill ensures American families are not left footing the bill for the grid upgrades and new energy generation required to operate large data centers. More specifically, it requires state utility regulators, like the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, to consider implementing rules for large-load data centers and hyperscalers to cover the full costs of power generation, transmission lines, and other energy infrastructure upgrades needed to meet their immense energy demand.
Evidence
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GovInfo bill text shows H.R. 9340 was introduced in the House by Mr. Evans of Colorado with Ms. Castor of Florida. The bill would establish a federal standard for recovery of the full incremental costs of upgrades serving large-load customers and requires financial assurances before generation, transmission, or distribution upgrades are made.
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The House Energy and Commerce Committee reported that H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, passed committee by a 52-0 vote. The release says the legislation would require state utility commissions to consider making data centers pay their own way instead of passing costs to consumers; Evans said he looked forward to final House passage.
Assessments
Evans sponsored H.R. 9340 and the bill text matches the promised policy of making large-load data center customers cover incremental energy infrastructure costs. The bill also advanced through House Energy and Commerce Committee 52-0 during his House term. However, the promised milestone was support for final House passage, and the evidence does not show final House passage as of August 12, 2026. This is meaningful same-term progress but not full delivery.