California Bill Targets Data Center Ratepayer Cost Shift

✓What's documented Names the bill (AB-222) and quotes the sponsoring legislator on record, with EIA data for the rate backdrop.

California lawmakers are advancing AB-222, which would require the state's roughly 300 data centers to report power usage effectiveness ratios to the Energy Commission twice a year, as scrutiny grows over who absorbs the cost of the AI buildout. The bill's author, Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, says the goal is stopping utilities from quietly shifting AI infrastructure costs onto ordinary ratepayers.

• AB-222 would require data center owners to report power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratios to the California Energy Commission on a biannual basis.
• Bill author Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D), representing a Silicon Valley district, says utilities "won't say it out loud" but are shifting AI infrastructure costs to ratepayers.
• California has roughly 300 data centers, per DataCenterMap and CBS News reporting cited in the piece.
• California electricity prices rose about 96% from 2014 to 2024, per U.S. EIA data cited in the piece.