To: Members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce
From: National Taxpayers Union
Date: June 30,2026
Subject: NTU’s Views on July 1 Committee Markup
I. Introduction and Key Taxpayer Considerations
On behalf of National Taxpayers Union (NTU), the nation’s oldest taxpayer advocacy organization, we write to express our views on several measures slated for consideration before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on July 1, 2026. NTU applauds the Committee for its continued efforts to advance legislation that improves government efficiency, advances American energy dominance, cuts red tape, and protects free market principles. As such, NTU strongly urges Committee members to support H.R. 9332.
II. NTU Views on Legislation at June 30 Markup
H.R. 9332, the Load Forecasting Enhancement Act – Support. This bipartisan legislation, authored by Reps. Balderson (R-OH) and Menendez (D-NJ), improves the accuracy of electricity demand forecasting to help both utilities and regulators anticipate surging energy needs. More reliable forecasts can ultimately cut the risk of supply shortages that might arise due to unforeseen stress on the grid due to factories, data centers, and residential consumer energy needs—all of which together are expected to increase usage by up to 50% by 2035. Better forecasting also supports more efficient permitting and grid planning, lowering costs for consumers by minimizing wasted investments and improving system reliability. Anticipating and adapting is the best proven approach to actually strengthen America’s energy infrastructure while protecting taxpayers and ratepayers alike. NTU supports H.R. 9332.
H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act. This bipartisan legislation, authored by Reps. Evans (R-CO) and Castor (D-FL) would require large electricity users—such as data centers—to cover the full cost of the infrastructure needed to serve them. At a basic level, residential energy prices are determined by local supply and demand. When data center developers build within a community, the extra demand on the community power supply can put pressure on household electricity prices to increase. Despite this, data center development can actually lower prices when developers plan responsibly and operate within a sound regulatory framework that encourages supply and allows for financing of long-delayed grid investments.
Enactment of this legislation would be a significant departure from how the federal government has historically approached large commercial usage of power from the grid. Hyperscalers, importantly, are already paying into the system and many have pledged to generate their own power to support their operations. The best thing Congress can do is not create more mandates on the private sector, but instead encourage more power generation onto grids across the board. This includes comprehensive permitting reforms for all types of energy sources and a rightsizing of tax policy to incentivize businesses to invest in the needed infrastructure. NTU urges caution with measures such as H.R. 9340, and would encourage Congress to put permitting reforms and other pro-investment, pro-supply reforms first.
NTU has recently published comprehensive studies on the impact of data centers on electricity rates, which can be found on our website, here.
III. Contact Information
Should you have any questions about the recommendations in this memo, please do not hesitate to reach out to Thomas Aiello at taiello@ntu.org.