Companies operating data centers should be the ones that pay for upgrades to the electric grid, most voters say according to a new poll.
The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll found that 66% of voters believe that data center companies should be paying for the increased power demand and infrastructure required to get that electricity to the data centers.
Fourteen percent of those registered to vote say the costs of the upgrades should be shared by both data center companies and the public while 8% believe the upgrades are the responsibility of federal, state or local taxpayers and 6% believe that all electricity customers should pay for the upgrades. Another 6% said they were unsure who should pay.
The results come from a survey conducted by Noble Predictive Insights from Oct. 5-7 that polled registered voters nationally via opt-in online panel and text-to-web cell phone messages. The sample included 2,527 respondents comprised of 1,011 Republicans, 1,011 Democrats, and 505 Independents. Among independent voters, 220 respondents were classified as true independents, which are individuals who do not lean toward either major party when given the choice. The margin of error is +/- 1.95%.
The cost of electricity infrastructure to power data centers has been debated across the country as more energy sources are required as well as new transmission lines and power storage equipment.
The U.S. House of Representatives nearly unanimously passed the Ratepayer Protection Act in September before it failed in the Senate on a 57-43 vote.
The bill would have required state public utility commissioners “commence consideration” of implementing rules that would protect ordinary ratepayers within one year of the bill becoming law.
President Donald Trump announced a Ratepayer Protection Pledge along with several hyper-scale data operators in 2025 with a goal of preventing Americans from paying for rising electricity costs associated with increased demand from data centers.
The pledge states that companies including Amazon, xAI, Oracle, Microsoft, Meta, Google and OpenAI will pay for the new electricity generation and grid infrastructure needed to accommodate new data centers.