Data centers gobble up Washington’s electricity — and a bill to stop it just failed

A major energy bill just died

Washington state’s push to regulate data centers hit a wall.

House Bill 2515, which would have forced data centers to pay more for electricity and follow strict clean energy rules, failed on March 3 when a Senate committee let it die without a vote. The bill had already cleared the House.

Lead sponsor Rep. Beth Doglio, a Democrat from Olympia, said she plans to bring it back next session. For now, the state’s booming data center industry faces no new rules.

The bill targeted energy and transparency

HB 2515 would have changed how data centers connect to Washington’s power grid. Utilities would have built new rate structures so data centers cover the full cost of hooking up.

The bill also would have required yearly public reports on energy use, water consumption, and air pollution.

New or expanding data centers would have needed to prove they use clean energy, hitting 80% by 2030 and 100% by 2036. A state fee on data center electricity would have funded low-income energy help and AI education.

Lawmakers worried about rising electric bills

Data centers are on track to become the biggest electricity users in the Pacific Northwest.

Some lawmakers warned that without new rules, the cost of powering these massive facilities would land on regular household electric bills.

Washington has about 126 data centers and related sites. The growth shows no signs of slowing. Walla Walla alone had 16 new projects in the pipeline, and an expansion in Vantage was already pulling from gas-powered energy.

The House passed it, then trouble started

The bill cleared the Washington House on Feb. 14 with a 51-41 vote. Five Democrats broke with their party and sided with Republicans to vote no.

Republicans argued the bill would push data center companies out of the state and cost rural towns jobs. Once the bill reached the Senate, opposition grew fast, and it never recovered.

Big tech and business groups pushed back

Microsoft, which runs about 30 data centers in Washington, came out against the bill on Feb. 28. The company called the rules unfairly targeted at the industry.

Amazon lobbied quietly but kept a neutral public stance. The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and a major construction trades council also opposed it.

Industry groups said the transparency requirements could reveal trade secrets and that the bill singled out data centers over other large energy users.

Key parts got stripped before the vote

The bill shrank as it moved through the legislature.

An earlier version included a state fee on data center energy use that could have raised more than $30 million a year, but lawmakers cut it.

Sen. Manka Dhingra, a Democrat from Redmond, rewrote the bill to drop the requirement that data centers build their own renewable energy sources.

If the Senate committee had voted, it would have been Dhingra’s slimmed-down version on the table.

A power-cut rule helped sink it

One of the final sticking points was a rule that would have forced data centers to reduce energy use during peak demand on the grid.

Under that plan, data centers would have been limited to backup power, like diesel generators, during high-demand periods. Industry lobbyists pushed back hard.

They argued data centers can’t just shut down because they keep hospitals, 911 call centers, and other critical services running.

That argument gained ground with lawmakers in the bill’s final days.

Supporters called it common sense

Environmental groups, tribal nations, and ratepayer advocates all backed the bill.

They said it would protect everyday customers from electricity rate hikes and bring transparency to how data centers use resources.

The NW Energy Coalition described the bill’s provisions as basic protections for affordability, grid reliability, and the environment.

Doglio said big tech companies make big promises in press releases but push back the moment states try to hold them accountable.

Rural towns pointed to real benefits

Not everyone saw data centers as a problem. In Quincy, a city of about 7,500 people, data center investment helped pay for a new library and an eight-bay fire station.

The Data Center Coalition said the industry has created thousands of jobs and brought billions of dollars in investment and tax revenue to Washington.

Rep. Alex Ybarra of Quincy and other lawmakers argued the bill put those economic benefits at risk for rural communities that depend on them.

Trump signed a voluntary pledge the same day

The bill died the same day President Trump gathered tech companies at the White House on March 4 to sign a Ratepayer Protection Pledge.

Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI all agreed to build, bring, or buy their own power for new data centers.

Trump first announced the pledge during his State of the Union address on Feb. 24, saying companies would have to provide for their own energy needs.

The White House said the move would keep Americans’ electric bills from rising.

Experts question whether pledges have teeth

Energy experts told multiple outlets the pledge only covers part of the problem.

The costs of building new power lines and upgrading the grid still fall on regular utility customers, pledge or not. At least six states have proposed bills to temporarily ban new data center construction altogether.

Some analysts noted the pledge simply puts on paper what several companies were already doing on their own, which raises questions about enforcement.

Doglio plans to try again next year

Doglio has committed to bringing data center regulation back in the next legislative session. The national debate over who should pay for data center power keeps growing as AI drives electricity demand higher.

Washington’s experience may shape how other states approach similar bills. For now, the state’s data center industry will keep expanding without the new rules HB 2515 would have put in place.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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