What would Jon Husted’s data center bill actually do?

Sen. Jon Husted’s (R-Ohio) Ratepayer Protection Act aims to mitigate high electricity costs associated with data centers, but even if it passes, it’s not clear if the bill would have any impact.

The legislation, which easily cleared the House 417-3 , requires states and some electric utilities to consider a standard under which data centers would have to pay for additional costs caused by their large power demand.

It does not require the adoption of any such standards, saying it would be up to the states or the nonregulated utilities to decide whether they want to take up any such standard. They would have two years to make that decision.

Experts and electricity rate advocates have told The Hill in recent weeks that the bill could be a step toward mitigating data centers’ electricity costs by forcing states that are not already doing anything to at least weigh a change in policy.

“There are states that are not addressing this issue as proactively … so having a message from Congress that says, ‘Hey, you, within this timeline, need to at least take up this issue,’ is a good push,” Clara Summers, director of the Consumers for a Better Grid Campaign at Citizens Utility Board, told The Hill in July .

Allison Clements, former commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said that for some states, the bill’s requirements could be redundant of what they are already directed to do by a recent commission order .

“Is it a good step? Yes. Is it anywhere close to sufficient relative to these challenges? No,” said Clements, a Democrat who is now principal at energy consulting firm 804 Advisory.

While it passed with flying colors in the House, the bill is expected to hit Democratic resistance in the Senate, where several lawmakers have criticized it as not doing very much.

“It’s got no teeth in it,” Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) told The Hill on Tuesday.

Husted, meanwhile, has said the bill is important for ensuring “American families are not left footing the bill for energy infrastructure required by data centers.”

The Ohio Republican is locked in a tight Senate race against former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).