Missouri U.S. Senator when asked about data center moratorium: "If we don't do something to guarantee no increases on electricity bills, no loss of access to water, if we don't do that, local residents are gonna start saying no to all of these data centers."
The Senator made his comments at a future of artificial intelligence policy and technological innovation event hosted by Axios in Washington, DC. on Wednesday.
In February, Hawley and Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced the first bipartisan bill in Congress aimed at preventing data center power usage from spiking consumersā electric bills.
The āGuaranteeing Rate Insulationā or āGRIDā Act, also seeks to ensure first priority for grid access to everyday electric users. The bill also seeks to make new data center operators power their structures via off-grid sources, with a 10-year off-ramp for existing data centers.