H.R. 9340 Passed the House Energy

Ratepayer Protection Act

To amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full, incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, and for other purposes.

  1. Introduced
  2. Committee
  3. Passed House
  4. Passed Senate
  5. To President
  6. Became law
Sponsor Rep. Evans, Gabe [R-CO-8] Introduced June 18, 2026 Cosponsors 42 (7 D, 35 R) Latest action September 30, 2026

Summary

Ratepayer Protection Act
The bill requires state utility regulators and nonregulated utilities to consider implementing a standard to hold certain large-load customers responsible for the costs associated with any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade of electric service necessary to serve such customers. A large-load customer means a non-residential electric consumer that enters, or requests to enter, an agreement concerning the sale of electric energy primarily to operate information technology infrastructure and related systems pertaining to data storage and computational applications and services (e.g., data centers) that have a peak electric demand of 100 megawatts or more at a single site or campus. 
Specifically, the bill requires states to consider implementing a federal standard for large-load customers. The standard must require rates charged by electric utilities for providing electric service to a large-load customer to be designed to recover from the large-load customer the full, incremental cost of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade necessary to serve such customer. This rate must include the costs that would be incurred if the large-load customer terminates an agreement with the electric utility pertaining to the sale of electric energy or otherwise ceases the purchase of energy from the electric utility.
Under the standard, an electric utility must require the large-load customer to provide to the utility financial assurances or contributions to cover the cost of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade that is necessary to serve the load of a large-load customer before the utility makes any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade.

Summary by the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.

Congress.gov

Roll-call votes

Actions

  1. Sep 30, 2026 Motion to proceed to consideration of measure withdrawn in Senate. (CR S5199)
  2. Sep 30, 2026 Cloture on the motion to proceed to the measure not invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 57 - 43. Record Vote Number: 254.
  3. Sep 30, 2026 Motion to proceed to consideration of measure made in Senate. (CR S5199)
  4. Sep 29, 2026 Motion to proceed to consideration of measure made in Senate.
  5. Sep 28, 2026 Cloture motion on the motion to proceed to the measure presented in Senate. (CR S5065)
  6. Sep 28, 2026 Motion to proceed to consideration of measure made in Senate. (CR S5065)
  7. Sep 24, 2026 Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 684.
  8. Sep 23, 2026 Read the first time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under Read the First Time.
  9. Sep 17, 2026 Received in the Senate.
  10. Sep 16, 2026 Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
  11. Sep 16, 2026 On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 417 - 3 (Roll no. 312). (text: CR H5656-5657)
  12. Sep 16, 2026 Considered as unfinished business. (consideration: CR H5958-5959)

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