Data Center Boom Sparks Lobbying Surge

The number of companies, associations and advocacy groups lobbying around data center issues more than doubled this spring compared to the same time last year as Congress and the Trump administration sought to address the industry's rapid growth.

More than 200 entities lobbied between April and June on proposals to prevent data center electric demand from spiking utility rates, a nationwide moratorium on new facilities and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's actions around how to connect the massive electricity users to the grid, a review of new federal lobbying disclosures by POLITICO showed.

It's a sharp increase from the same quarter in 2025, when fewer than 100 companies and groups reported lobbying on data center matters.

“At this point, almost all my clients are lobbying on this,” said Elizabeth Whitney, who represents electric cooperatives and municipal power utilities as managing principal at the firm Meguire Whitney.

The Washington lobbying rose as concern about the energy and environmental impacts of data centers exploded around the country and action trickled up from city halls and county commission to the White House and Congress, according to the disclosures.

The intense lobbying hasn't stopped lawmakers and administration officials from acting on data centers, but it's at least keeping national moratorium demands at bay.

President Donald Trump has gotten hundreds of companies to sign onto a nonbinding pledge that calls for limiting electricity price increases on homeowners. A House committee advanced legislation directing state utility regulators to consider a standard that would put data centers on the hook for the cost of new power generation. And FERC is mulling new regulations.

New York became the first state to enact a moratorium on large-scale data center construction, but congressional leaders from both parties haven't endorsed the idea of a national halt on such facilities.

Trump himself praised the data center industry as "real doers" and "an amazing group" during a Washington event celebrating new signers of his pledge.

"You have communities that really want the data centers, and frankly, those are the smart communities, because it means tremendous numbers of jobs, very little actual disruption," the president said last week.

'Crosses over all industries'

Electric utilities were some of the most prolific federal advocates on data centers, the filings showed, as decision-makers debated how to ensure the grid can handle the projects without increasing other users’ bills.

While companies do not break out their lobbying costs by issue, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern Co. were the highest lobbying spenders in the energy sector in the second quarter of the year — at $3.5 million and $3.2 million respectively.

Technology companies that rely on the data centers — like Google, Oracle, Microsoft and Intel — disclosed lobbying on the legislation, as did real estate developers and labor unions whose members build them.

“This build-out transcends and crosses over all industries. And it raises many new questions that policymakers had not faced before, while introducing questions into new regions of the country where they didn’t previously exist,” said Matthew Leggett, a lobbyist at the firm K&L Gates who focuses on energy.

Companies are generally supportive of the push by Trump and others to “win the AI race,” said Leggett.

“Investors need to make sure that they get their businesses decisions right, fundamentally. But they also need to make sure that the environment around those business decisions is favorable to those investments and will be over time in a durable way,” he said.

More than 20 companies or groups said they lobbied on executive branch data center action — like FERC’s proposals and the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, Trump’s promise that companies will pay for all grid and generation upgrades their data centers need.

Federal interest in data centers took a big step forward last year when Energy Secretary Chris Wright instructed FERC to consider regulating how the facilities interact with the grid.

“What utilities want out of this is an orderly structure that protects their ratepayers, but also allows them to serve these customers in a way that actually does benefit the grid overall," Whitney said.

On the Hill

In Congress, lawmakers are considering proposals like the Ratepayer Protection Act and the Guaranteeing Rate Insulation from Data Centers (GRID) Act.

Meta, Google and the Edison Electric Institute were among the three dozen companies that said they lobbied on the Ratepayer Protection Act, the bill from Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.), Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) and Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) — H.R. 9340 and S. 5028 — that would direct states to consider whether they need to set new policies to ensure electric rates don’t increase due to data centers.

That legislation has gotten the closest to passage of any major data center bill, getting House Energy and Commerce Committee approval this month. It's likely to get a full House vote in September, but it's Senate outlook is more murky.

The Data Center Coalition, which counts Amazon, Google and Microsoft among its members, came out against the latest version of the proposal after lawmakers changed it to target only data centers and not other big electricity users.

Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) — who has championed the bill's progress — questioned the sector's strategy on lobbying on the issue general.

"What the data center builders have been not really good at is going and explaining the value to the communities, and so communities want to be protected," Guthrie said.

"I want them to build their data centers, but I want communities to be protected, and that's what we tried to strike the balance. I don't think there's a scenario where they just do whatever they want."

The GRID Act, S. 3852, from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) was mentioned in more than a dozen lobbying filings. It would require new data centers to build their own power generation capacity. It has not gotten much traction on the Hill.

Legislation from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — S. 4214 and H.R. 9442 — to enact a national moratorium also got significant attention in the filings.

Greens get in on the action

Environmental groups like the Sierra Club were also active on data center lobbying. They have been supportive of some data center legislation backed by Democrats, including proposals that would set emissions standards for data centers.

“Congress has finally started to recognize the massive groundswell of pushback from the public. And as electricity rates are skyrocketing and affordability has come to the forefront for everybody this year — and data centers are a big driver and a big part of that narrative — members of Congress are actually reacting to pressure from their constituents," said Patrick Drupp, director of climate policy at the Sierra Club.

Food & Water Watch, which has been one of the most outspoken environmental organizations in opposition to data centers and supports a moratorium on construction, said in its quarterly lobbying report that it advocated for a grant program on “data center impact and local capacity.” The group reported spending less than $5,000 on lobbying during the time period.

The Sierra Club hasn’t come out in support of a nationwide data center moratorium. Drupp said the group’s lobbying priorities are mostly around increasing transparency around data centers — like their electricity and water usage.

That idea has bipartisan backing. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has started gathering some energy statistics on data centers, while Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy’s Public Oversight of Water and Energy Reporting Act, H.R. 9019, would institute a range of new disclosure requirements.

“We don't know a lot about their electricity use, how they're deploying backup power, their water usage, their noise impacts — all of these different things that people are concerned about,” Drupp said.

Amelia Davidson contributed to this report.