A surprise call from a powerful House Democrat to impose a nationwide moratorium on new data center development is gaining little traction with many colleagues, suggesting the approach remains radioactive despite growing bipartisan concern about the energy-hungry facilities.
Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone of New Jersey threw a curveball during debate last week on more modest data center bills when he endorsed the federal pause, making him the highest-ranking federal lawmaker with jurisdiction over energy and the environment to back the idea.
But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO on Tuesday he hadn’t discussed the moratorium with Pallone, and he sought to distance himself from a policy position that is becoming popular among progressive lawmakers and environmental groups.
“That’s certainly not a position that I’ve articulated at this moment,” Jeffries said.
Pallone wouldn’t say whether he would pursue the nationwide data center moratorium should he take over the Energy and Commerce Committee next year if Democrats win back the House.
“Right now, there is no federal regulation of data centers,” Pallone told POLITICO. “And they just keep being built. So until we have some strong protections to address the cost to ratepayers and the environment, we should have a moratorium.”
Other Democrats said Tuesday they were not supportive of the moratorium but understood Pallone’s position, which they said was driven by rising community-level pressure.
“A nationwide moratorium has issues because we still need to build data centers in the United States. That’s not going to change. You can argue that we’re going to need to build more, given where emerging technology is headed,” said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), who has opposed data center expansion in his Northern Virginia district and sought to draw a distinction to a more localized approach.
“I don’t see a problem with a local moratorium, especially where I live in Northern Virginia, where there are far too many data centers, and we’re having conversations about putting power lines in residential areas and schools and really hurting the environment and the community at large,” said Subramanyam, who is sponsoring legislation, H.R. 9372, that would standardize how the government studies data centers and their energy and water use.
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), who is also leading legislation, H.R. 6529, to address the energy impacts of data centers, said, “It’s not where I am, but I believe there needs to be a national framework to protect communities, to protect ratepayers, to protect workers. I don’t think it’s feasible to not have data centers. But it’s also not practical to continue to ask communities to figure this out on their own.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) last week officially introduced the House version of her and Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ legislation to instill an indefinite national data center moratorium. Pallone has not specifically backed their effort yet, but Ocasio-Cortez said she was “very encouraged” to hear Pallone’s support for the general idea.
The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy approved legislation last week — with Pallone’s support — that would have states consider adopting a federal standard requiring large electricity users to pay the full cost of new generation and transmission upgrades.
The full Energy and Commerce Committee was supposed to vote on the Ratepayer Protection Act, H.R. 9340, on Wednesday but postponed the session when House GOP leaders sent lawmakers home for recess early.
“It’s an important step,” said Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), the Energy Subcommittee ranking member who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) and said Democratic leadership is supportive of it. “It’s still pretty modest. The burden will be on states and communities to put in the guardrails.”
Castor reiterated she opposes a nationwide moratorium but said Pallone told her he decided to call for one because “his local communities were up in arms.”
“You do have to respect local communities,” Castor said. “There may be some that have guardrails in place and need economic development. But let’s do it in a thoughtful manner too.”
Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.) said about Pallone’s position: “I understand the concern that he’s hearing. I hear it locally in Virginia. I don’t know if we need a moratorium but we definitely need to be more thoughtful in siting them and showing they are paying their fair share.”
Democrats are not the only ones expressing concern. Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) has spoken about listening to community input on data centers. And Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.) introduced H.R. 9419 to address data center energy and water use.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who was running for governor, in May called for a state data center moratorium. Mace lost her primary in that contest.
House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), who is helping negotiate permitting reform legislation that could include electric grid upgrades, called the idea of a moratorium “ridiculous.”
“The part that everybody’s missing is there’s an opportunity to help lower costs for everyone,” Westerman said. “If this is done intelligently, if the public service commissions in the state, utilities in the states, and the data companies work together, they can figure out how to optimize the grid, so that all the generating and transmitting equipment is operating at a higher utilization rate, which means that the cost of capital gets spread out more and can lower rates.”
