2026 Regular Session - Day 39 - HB 593 | Rep. Josh Bray

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Would you please have the clerk report House Committee Substitute 1. Clerk please report. House Committee Substitute 1 to House Bill 593. General from Rockcastle. So the committee substitute made some technical changes along the lines of allowing our local municipal utility companies extra time to develop some of these policies and it also provided some operational flexibility for some of our electric providers. With that I'd move adoption of House Committee Substitute 1. Motion is for the adoption of House Committee Substitute 1. Is there any discussion in the committee substitute? Seeing none those in favor signify by voting aye. Aye. Those opposed nay. House Committee Substitute 1 is adopted. Gentleman from Rockcastle. Thank you Mr. Speaker. House Bill 593 is a very important bill especially with the rise of artificial intelligence and the need of data centers across the state of Kentucky. For the past two years I've had the pleasure of being the chair, the House Chair of the Artificial Intelligence Task Force and this issue is one that popped up over the interim. We have seen an incredible demand within Kentucky for data centers. They are absolutely necessary for the United States to lead the world in artificial intelligence development but it's also very important that we provide assurances to rate payers and utility customers across the state that we have common sense policies adopted so that in case things become more efficient or in case electrical demand changes in the future that we won't have rate payers stuck taking the risk or burdened with high electric bills because of data center development in the future. The bill aims to do one simple thing. We want to make sure that rate payers aren't subsidizing or taking the risk on data center development. When we look at electrical capacity in the commonwealth the fact of the matter is is we currently don't have enough electrical capacity for future growth for economic development and the timelines for increasing capacity are extremely long because federal regulations and bottlenecks within the supply chain so we're trying to take a common sense approach to make sure that we've got the electrical capacity we need to grow into the future and to make sure that rate payers aren't saddled with the risk. It does this in three ways. It says hey we want you know we recognize that data centers in Kentucky are important but we want to make sure that when they come in they either bring their own generation which a lot of big tech companies are wanting to do. They purchase their power on the open market or they prepay for any generation or transmission cost increases up front. In my conversations with the big tech companies that we want Kentucky doing business with they are absolutely on board with this. I think it's it walks a very fine line of maintaining local control so that we mandate that local certified that all local regulations are met before tax incentives are given while protecting our energy supply into the future. I will be happy to take any questions but with that I move adoption of house house bill 593 as amended by house committee substitute one.