California’s AI Data Center Fight Moves to the Utility Bill

California lawmakers reached a late-August compromise on data-center energy legislation as AI infrastructure growth collides with utility-bill politics. Official Aug. 28 amendments to SB 886 and AB 2383 show the core mechanism: CPUC tariffs and updated electric rules for large participating data-center customers, with cost-shift protections for nonparticipating ratepayers. The bills remain active, not enacted, and the next fight is how the CPUC would translate legislative guardrails into actual interconnection, generation, and demand-response rules.

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