Last year, the General Assembly approved tax incentives for companies looking to build data centers in the state.

But this year, state lawmakers might shed some guardrails to protect the people living near those facilities.

Our June Lefler has more.

A.I.

supporting data centers guzzle energy that can require expensive energy infrastructure upgrades.

House Bill 593 would make sure companies, not residential energy customers, would fit that bill.

Eastern Kentucky is kind of the perfect example, right?

We used to have a lot of industry there that's had to be forced out.

And so now we've got all of this transmission, all of this infrastructure that's got to be paid for.

And the only people left to pay for it are the residents.

And so this bill aims to make sure that we don't have situations like that going forward.

Do I understand you right?

If this bill passes, there's no way that any constituents electric bills, utility bills would go up because of that.

That is my intention.

Yes, sir.

And I appreciate that very much.

Companies could build their own energy sources, but if they pull from the public.

Grid, we have to increase generation.

If we have to increase transmission.

Then the data center should pay for all of those expenses up front.

The bill received unanimous bipartisan support in the committee.

So I appreciate.

You.

And I want to say that this bill is a due diligence bill.

I feel like we are always on the backside of fixing problems.

Here in Frankfort.

And this is a bill that gets ahead of the game.

In a state like Virginia, for instance, in the last five years, their electricity costs have gone up 267% because of data centers.

So, I agree with my colleagues.

I appreciate what you're doing here.

You're getting ahead of the problem.

But thank you for making sure that our ratepayers are not going to be impacted.

I want to also make sure we, address environmental impacts of these data centers.

So there's going to be a lot of areas where we need to regulate them.

But I appreciate you taking this first step.

So I mean yes.

The bill now heads to the House floor for Kentucky Edition.

I'm June Leffler.

Thank you.

June.

The federal government is working on this, too.

The white House says next week, Google, meta, Microsoft and other major tech companies will sign a pledge to supply their own energy for AI projects.