Everybody seems to agree that America needs more data centers. The AI companies need them. The utilities want to power them. Elected officials describe them as essential infrastructure in a global race against China. But who receives the profits — and who ultimately gets the power bill?
That question sits at the center of Follow the Lobby Money, a new Techstrong investigation into the financial and political forces driving America’s data-center boom. Part One follows the money to Washington, where a five-page bill called ** H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act**, has become a magnet for one of the largest short-window lobbying efforts of the year.
What We Found
A review of second-quarter federal LD-2 disclosures identified 53 filings representing 50 organizations and 206 named lobbyists that expressly cited H.R. 9340 or the Ratepayer Protection Act. Together, those filers reported roughly $42.4 million in quarterly federal lobbying activity across all issues — the influence apparatus surrounding a bill that Politico described as a magnet for “almost all” of one lobbyist’s clients.
The coalition is not the familiar picture of Big Tech versus consumer advocates. Utilities and grid operators, industrial manufacturers, data-center trade groups, and an emerging energy-supply cluster are all working the same five pages — sometimes in agreement, more often in tension. The result is a four-way fight over who pays for the generation, transmission and distribution the AI build-out requires.
Why It Matters
H.R. 9340 cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee on a 52–0 vote. The White House has announced a voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge. Both are being marketed as guarantees. Neither is. The bill requires states to consider a large-load cost-allocation standard under PURPA — not to adopt one. Brookings has warned that the pledge is a promise to negotiate protections, not the protection itself. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that data centers already account for roughly $6.3 billion — nearly 40% — of PJM’s latest capacity-market charges, costs that flow through to households and small businesses across the grid.
Part One maps the federal lobbying picture, the coalition dynamics, the gap between political language and statutory text, and the seven questions this investigation will follow into the states.
Inside Part One
- The 53 filings, the 50 organizations and the 206 lobbyists behind H.R. 9340
- The bipartisan sponsors — Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL)— and the PURPA hook they are using - How the Data Center Coalition, Industrial Energy Consumers of America and the American Iron and Steel Institute ended up on opposite sides of the same bill
- The gap between the White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge and its expanded July participation - Seven questions this investigation will carry into Virginia, Ohio, Louisiana, Texas and Pennsylvania
Follow the Lobby Money is a continuing Techstrong investigation. Tips, disclosures and corrections: Email Us