The Senate moves to make AI data centres pay their own power bills, and Trump is backing a deal with Democrats to do it

The question of who pays for the electricity behind the AI boom has reached the floor of the US Senate.

Senators voted 73-25 on Monday, 9 November US time, to take up the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, a permitting bill written by two Republicans, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Mike Lee of Utah, and two Democrats, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Nearly all Republicans and more than a dozen Democrats voted yes.

The vote lets the Senate begin debate and sets up more votes later this week on final passage.

What would the bill do?

The bill would change several of America’s core environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, to shorten deadlines for environmental reviews. It would overhaul how transmission lines are approved and restrict when projects can be challenged in court.

For the AI industry, the key clause is cost. AI companies and data centre developers would have to pay their own way for the power and grid upgrades their facilities need, rather than spreading those costs across other electricity customers.

The authors say data centres would pay about US$55 billion over 10 years to cover their power use, households would save US$19 billion on power bills through 2040, and the number of solar and wind projects connecting to the grid would double. No independent cost estimate has been published.

Why is Trump backing a deal with Democrats?

President Donald Trump has backed the bill in a social media post, calling it a “BIG WIN for U.S. ENERGY INDEPENDENCE and DOMINANCE”, and saying it would help build pipelines, mines and power plants faster.

He has not changed his mind on wind. He told reporters on Monday that he would not approve wind turbines, calling them “a major loser”. Whitehouse says the bill would end federal buyouts of offshore wind leases, which the administration has used.

“Americans can’t afford to wait for lower electricity prices,” Heinrich said. Capito called the bill “a win for America”.

Who is against it?

The Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation strongly oppose it, citing the limits on judicial review and the changes to environmental and endangered species law. The Conservation Law Foundation said pushing it through in the final weeks of this Congress would be “a terrible mistake”.

Some Democrats want to wait for the new Congress, when their party will hold both chambers. Senator Chris Van Hollen voted no, partly over Trump’s opposition to offshore wind.

In the House, Jeffries, who is expected to become Speaker in January, said last week that the bill “falls short” in a number of areas. His office said he would not rubber-stamp a Senate bill without more involvement from House Democrats.

Unusually, the bill has support from both the American Clean Power Association and the American Petroleum Institute.

Why does it matter beyond America?

The biggest AI companies are American, and so is much of the computing behind the services people use around the world, including in Australia. If the bill passes, data centre developers would carry their own grid costs, which changes the economics of where AI companies build and how quickly new generation reaches the grid. Any country wrestling with the same question now has a working model to compare against.

How tight is the timetable?

Very. The current Congress ends in January. If the bill does not pass both chambers before then, it would have to start again in a Congress controlled by Democrats, where Jeffries has signalled he wants a bigger say.