Cotton Announces Support for Bill to Protect Arkansans from Paying for Data Centers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tatum Wallace or Hannah McCarthy September 23, 2026 Cotton Announces Support for Bill to Protect Arkansans from Paying for Data Centers WASHINGTON —Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today announced support for Senator Jon Husted’s (R-Ohio) Ratepayer Protection Act, which would lower energy prices for Arkansans by proposing standards for state regulators to enforce when connecting data centers to the grid. The bill would codify key elements of President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge by ensuring that data centers, not families or small businesses, pay for power generation and other infrastructure needed to serve their facilities. “Whether it’s the cure to cancer or help for their small business, Arkansans understand the great potential of data centers and American AI innovation but are also rightfully concerned about higher electricity costs. I’m proud to support Senator Husted’s bill that would prevent electricity prices from rising by requiring data centers to pay the full cost of grid upgrades needed to service them,” said Senator Cotton . Text of the bill can be found here . The Ratepayer Protection Act would: Propose standards that state regulators may enforce when considering integrating new large-load customers with a demand of 100 megawatts or more onto the grid, including: Recovery of full, incremental cost of upgrades by the large-load customer over a long period of time through a special rate charge or other agreements. This would protect utilities and their ratepayers from being left responsible for upgrade costs associated with a large-load customer, even if that customer later reduces operations or leaves the system entirely. Financial assurances requiring the large-load customer to pay for any generation, transmission, or other infrastructure necessary to serve their load. This would ensure large-load customers are responsible for the fixed costs associated with serving their demand rather than passing those costs on to families and businesses through higher monthly electricity bills. ###