Before I begin, I have always made it clear that this is NOT a political blog, and politics is not a subject I normally cover.
However, with this particular article, I will be discussing a bill that has been introduced to address the very subject we’re talking about: upgrading America’s power grid infrastructure.
I’m making a small exception to my usual rule because this is a bipartisan bill, meaning members of both political parties are sponsoring it.
My interest isn’t in the politics behind the bill. It’s in what the legislation proposes and how it could affect our electrical infrastructure, data centers, and ultimately, all of us.
Now, to the subject at hand.
We are finally starting to see some movement toward addressing a problem that has been neglected for decades: upgrading America’s electrical infrastructure.
In my recent article, In the News: Google to Pay for Nuclear Power Plant Upgrades, I discussed some of the challenges surrounding electrical power generation.
But as I pointed out in that article, generating more electricity is only part of the solution. We also need to address the infrastructure that delivers that electricity to our homes, businesses, and the growing number of data centers across the country.
I also noted in that article that the current estimated cost of upgrading our electrical infrastructure is just under a trillion dollars over the next several years.
After all, what good is generating more electricity if our existing power grid cannot adequately handle and distribute it?
And right after I posted that article, I came across another piece of news about legislation being proposed through a bipartisan effort to address our nation’s energy infrastructure problems: the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (S. 5653).
Sigh. Why don’t they just call the freaking bill the Energy Infrastructure Rebuild Act or some bullshit like that?
Yea, I get it. It’s about affordability for Americans. But shit, this problem has been around for decades. It’s not like it suddenly appeared because data centers started popping up everywhere.
Fucking politics really does irritate the shit out of me.
OK, enough with my rant. Let’s move on and examine what the bill actually says.
Gadget’s Summary: The American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (S. 5653)
Gadget (my ChatGPT client), time for you to step up and give me a summary of this bill in layman’s terms so I can discuss it.
1. Make It Easier to Build Energy Infrastructure
Currently, major infrastructure projects can spend years going through government reviews, environmental studies, and permitting.
The bill proposes speeding up that process by establishing clearer deadlines, coordinating reviews between government agencies, and reducing some duplicative requirements.
In plain English: Make decisions faster so companies can get approved projects under construction sooner.
That doesn’t mean eliminating environmental protections, although changing the review process raises questions about how thoroughly projects will be evaluated.
2. Upgrade America’s Electrical Transmission System
This is directly related to the subject of this article.
The bill proposes changes intended to make it easier to build new high-voltage transmission lines, upgrade existing ones, and improve planning for future electricity demand.
It also addresses newer technologies that could allow existing power lines to carry more electricity.
In plain English: We need more capacity to move electricity around the country, and we need to make better use of the power lines we already have.
3. Make Data Centers Pay for the Infrastructure They Require
This is one of the most interesting provisions.
The legislation would change how the costs of supplying electricity to large computing facilities are calculated and charged.
The objective is to prevent ordinary electricity customers from having to subsidize transmission upgrades specifically needed by data centers.
In plain English: If a company builds a massive data center that requires expensive electrical upgrades, the company should bear the costs attributable to serving it rather than automatically passing those costs along to homeowners and small businesses.
The precise costs and charges would depend on the rules established under the legislation.
4. Plan Ahead Instead of Waiting for Problems
The bill would require better coordination between future power generation and transmission planning, including looking ahead 20 years.
In plain English: Stop waiting until demand overwhelms the system before figuring out where new power plants and transmission lines should go.
5. Help New Power Sources Connect to the Grid
Building a power plant doesn’t necessarily mean it can immediately deliver electricity.
New generating facilities often face lengthy waits to connect to the transmission network.
The bill would streamline the process for evaluating and approving those connections.
In plain English: There’s little point building new generating capacity if it gets stuck waiting to connect to the grid.
6. Address Other Energy Projects
The legislation also includes changes affecting geothermal energy, pipelines, federal lands, and other infrastructure projects.
Its scope goes well beyond AI and data centers.
7. Change How Environmental Reviews and Lawsuits Work
The bill would shorten certain legal challenge deadlines and limit some ways courts can halt projects over environmental review deficiencies.
Supporters argue this would reduce costly delays and uncertainty. Critics may be concerned about reduced opportunities to challenge inadequate reviews.
In plain English: The bill tries to get infrastructure built faster, but it also changes some of the legal protections and procedures surrounding those projects.
Actually, this bill is more comprehensive than I thought it would be. It is very broad in scope, covering many of the infrastructure problems that have been kicked down the road for the last couple of decades, including streamlining the regulatory and environmental review processes without sacrificing those important protections.
The rest of the issues being addressed are equally important. However, the way I’m reading this legislation, much of the infrastructure upgrading appears to be focused on areas near data centers or new power generation facilities.
But what about the rest of our nation’s electrical grid? We have power lines, substations, and other infrastructure across the country that also need to be upgraded.
We also need to remember that electrical demand has its peaks and valleys. When demand is lower in one region, available generating capacity can be used to help supply another region where demand is higher. That’s one of the advantages of having an interconnected electrical grid.
But that only works effectively if the transmission network can handle moving that electricity from one region to another.
If we’re going to increase our power generation capacity and accommodate the growing demand from data centers, shouldn’t we also be upgrading the broader electrical network that carries and distributes that power?
After all, what good is having additional generating capacity if the existing infrastructure cannot deliver that electricity to where it’s needed?
We need to be looking at the entire electrical grid, not just the infrastructure immediately surrounding new power plants and data centers.
I may very well be reading this bill incorrectly. It could be intended to address infrastructure upgrades across the entire nation, including areas that aren’t anywhere near power generation facilities or data centers. Point 2 may actually cover this broader issue, but I’m not entirely sure I’m interpreting it correctly.
But at least from the summary Gadget gave me, I’m just not seeing that yet.
OK, onto the rabbit hole I’m about to jump into.
Yea, yea, yea. Make big business foot the bill. But in any business, whether big, small, or medium-sized, when they have to foot a bill, those costs often get passed on to their customers in one form or another. In other words, we’re still going to end up footing at least some of the bill ourselves, sooner or later.
What I THINK will happen is that operating data centers will become much more expensive. I already lost one web host because they couldn’t afford the rising costs associated with data centers. And in this case, I think those costs will definitely rise again.
That could mean higher prices for businesses that depend on data centers, which in turn pass those additional expenses along to their own customers.
And where does that leave us? Paying higher prices for the products and services we use?
Now, just because we HAVE to make these upgrades, I think we should accept the fact that, one way or another, we’re going to be part of the payment process.
But again, this has to be done. It should have been done years ago. We’ve waited so long that we’re now faced with making these upgrades in one big-ass chunk instead of gradually improving our infrastructure over the years.
Hopefully, these improvements will help us avoid the rolling blackouts that have been predicted over the years if we fail to modernize our electrical grid.
And let’s not forget, upgrading our infrastructure will also allow us to support more of the services and technologies that we use and depend on every day.
So, I will support this bill, or at least something like it. Because, honestly, this is the first time I can remember seeing this problem being seriously addressed on such a broad scale. And I’m an old fart who has always enjoyed following topics like this.
I still think the bill is too narrow in some respects, particularly when it comes to upgrading the existing electrical infrastructure across the entire country.
But you have to start somewhere. And from what I’ve seen so far, this appears to be a starting point.