Senate Democrats block Husted’s data center bill weeks before the midterms

Senate Democrats have blocked the Ratepayer Protection Act, the bill that Ohio Republican Jon Husted wrote to shield households from the electricity costs of the data center boom.

The measure fell flat at a 57 to 43 tally, three votes short of the 60 it needed to scale through. Only four Democrats voted in its favor.

The blockage also kills the senator’s last chance to show voters that he is acting on affordability before the November midterm election.

The contest for the seat that Husted currently occupies is seen as one of the tightest Senate races for the upcoming elections.

He is up against former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, who has been tying Husted to the rise in power bills for the average citizen. Brown accuses Husted of being complicit in the 240 data centers now operating in Ohio and the rising power bills that come with them.

Why did Husted put his name on the bill?

The Ratepayer Protection Act would amend existing energy law so that state utility regulators must at least consider a federal standard.

Under the act, nonresidential customers who are consuming 100 megawatts or more at a single site would pay the full incremental cost of the generation and transmission upgrades their demand requires. Large AI data centers fall under this category.

According to the act, they would not be spreading that cost across ordinary ratepayers. Companies would also have to post financial assurances in case a project is canceled or moved.

The House had passed the bill 417 to 3 in mid-September, with every present Republican and nearly every Democrat in favor. Only three progressive Democrats voted no.

Upon getting to the Senate, the voting took a different turn in what is seen as more politically motivated. 

According to Husted, a bill that was popular should have sailed through. Husted told reporters, “You all know this is the only game in town.” He added, “This bill passing is the only way to get a chance to prove to the American people before the midterm elections whose side you’re on.”

What the Democrats said in blocking it

The reason the Democrats gave for rejecting the bill is that it is hollow. They pointed out that the bill only tells state regulators to consider the standard, adding that it does not set any lower prices.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it “a fraud, plain and simple.” Schumer said, “They want it optional, which means zero. We want it mandatory.”

Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, who lodged an earlier objection that stopped fast-track passage, has his own measure directing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to write binding rules for large electricity customers. 

Vermont’s Peter Welch told CNN, “I think voters see this for what it is: as kind of a political maneuver at the 11th hour.”

Husted turns the block into an attack line

Husted is recasting the defeat as evidence of Democratic obstruction. He called the failure to supply votes a “Chuck Schumer play.” He said, “Now they own it. The Democrats are obstructionists on lowering electricity prices for American consumers.”

However, Husted seems to have a hand in the problem he is now trying to solve. His opponent, Brown, has been calling him out in his campaign on that same point.

When Husted was lieutenant governor, he championed Ohio as a tech hub, steering $43.5 million in state tax incentives and a 15-year local property-tax abatement to land a Google data center in 2019.

Residential electricity rates have risen by over 175% since 2005, outpacing both inflation and the national average, per U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

In August, the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned in an internal memo that “more than any other thing in this race, data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck.”