NC House passes data center regulation bill
The North Carolina House has passed the Ratepayer Protection Act (SB 730), a bill designed to regulate large data centers across the state. The legislation would require data centers to bear their own infrastructure and energy costs, conduct environmental reviews, and use efficient cooling systems. It also prohibits foreign ownership from certain countries and local government incentives.
The North Carolina House has approved the Ratepayer Protection Act (SB 730), a comprehensive bill aimed at regulating large data centers and modifying state energy policy. The legislation mandates that data centers pay for their own infrastructure and energy needs, undergo environmental reviews and noise studies, and utilize efficient cooling systems while prohibiting wasteful evaporative cooling. It also bans eminent domain for data center projects, ends new local government incentives like tax breaks and grants, and restricts ownership by companies linked to China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea.
State Representatives Dean Arp (R-Union) and Matthew Winslow (R-Franklin), sponsors of the bill, emphasized its purpose to protect residential ratepayers by ensuring data centers cover their own costs and do not shift burdens to consumers. The bill specifically targets data centers with peak electricity demands of at least 100 megawatts and requires them to enter direct contracts with utilities.
The bill additionally includes several state energy policy changes, such as capping renewable energy mandate costs, accelerating permit processes for energy projects, and requiring approval of new nuclear facilities before certain large power plants can be retired. Democrats, including State Rep. Abe Jones (D-Wake), criticized these energy provisions, arguing they should be considered separately from data center regulations and warning they could increase consumer costs.
An approved Republican-backed amendment refined the definition of a data center to focus solely on facilities primarily for digital data storage and processing. It also directs the Department of Environmental Quality to establish water-use standards for future data centers and maintains restrictions on water-intensive cooling systems. The bill will now advance to the Senate for further consideration.