ai may land on your power bill

Alaska lawmakers have less than a week left in the regular legislative session, which ends May 20, 2026, to decide how the state will handle AI data center development. The most direct legislative proposal is SB 250, sponsored by Anchorage Senator Loki Tobin, which would block the cost of supplying power to a data center from being folded into utility rates.

The bill directly affects Chugach Electric and Matanuska Electric ratepayers across Anchorage, Eagle River, the Mat-Su Valley, and Fairbanks. Without protections in place, those customers could end up covering the power costs of new data center development through their own utility bills.

SB 250 also requires community benefit agreements, binding contracts between any data center developer and the community where it builds. Alaska currently has neither incentives nor ratepayer protections for data centers, even as 34 other states already have incentives on the books to attract them.

The U.S. military has already listed Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Eielson Air Force Base, and Clear Space Force Station as potential sites for future data center development. In Lower 48 states that welcomed data centers without ratepayer protections, utility rates have spiked for residents.

With the legislative session ending May 20, SB 250 is the only direct legislative response on the table this year. Supporters say it determines whether Alaska captures the jobs and tax revenue from data center growth, or whether ordinary ratepayers end up covering the power bill instead.