The US Senate has voted 73-25 to take up a bill that fast-tracks energy permits and makes data centres pay for their grid upgrades. Fair to bill payers, or an AI giveaway?
The bipartisan bill would shorten reviews for large energy projects, clean and fossil fuel, and stop data centres' grid costs landing on household bills. Environmental groups say it weakens safeguards and could speed up gas-powered data centres. It still needs more Senate votes and House approval, and sponsors hope to pass it before this Congress ends in January.
What happened
On 9 November the US Senate voted 73-25 to formally take up a bipartisan permitting bill, its first major action since the midterm elections. Championed by Senators Shelley Moore Capito, Mike Lee, Martin Heinrich and Sheldon Whitehouse, it would shorten reviews for large energy projects, both clean and fossil fuel, and require data centres to pay the full cost of the grid upgrades they trigger. President Trump, labour leaders and industry groups back it. It still needs further Senate votes and House approval.
Why people disagree
Supporters say the bill ends what Whitehouse calls data centre 'freeloading', protecting households from grid costs, and that faster permits will bring more, cheaper power; Rhodium Group projects it would cut household bills. Critics, including the Sierra Club and hundreds of other groups, say it weakens environmental reviews, limits court challenges and could speed a build-out of gas-powered data centres and projects on public land.
What's still unclear
Democrats won the midterms and are divided over the bill, so it isn't clear it can pass before this Congress ends. How much it would really cut household bills, and how many new gas projects it would enable, remains contested.
Sources
More takes
House-hunters say AI-staged listing photos, which fill empty rooms with furniture that isn't there, are false advertising. Useful tool, or should they be banned?
Before today's US midterms, NPR got four of five AI chatbots to list candidates to vote for after a little pushing. Should chatbots ever suggest who to vote for?
