Virginia didn't see it coming.
The state that handed Amazon, Google, and Microsoft a third of the world's data center capacity is now watching its residents absorb monthly electric bill increases of $11 to $16 – because nobody made Big Tech pay its own way before the servers switched on.
Florida just made sure that won't happen here – and the Florida Senate did it without a single dissenting vote.
DeSantis Puts Floridians' Bills Ahead of Big Tech's Expansion Plans
The Florida Senate passed SB 484 unanimously Thursday, requiring large-scale AI data centers to pay their own utility costs rather than shifting the bill to Florida residents.
The legislation gives local governments authority over where data centers can be built through comprehensive planning and land development regulations.
It requires immediate public disclosure once any data center proposes to locate, expand, or move anywhere in Florida – ending the backroom deals that left Virginia communities blindsided.
And it blocks the utility cost-shifting model that turned Virginia into a cautionary tale for every state watching its electric bills spike alongside its server farm count.
https://twitter.com/SupportDeSantis/status/2026313826883260827?s=20
Sen. Bryan Avila, the Miami Republican who sponsored the bill, put the stakes in plain English: "It is a product that enforces local government authority. It protects our residents, our ratepayers, first and foremost."
What Amazon and Google Did to Virginia's Electric Bills
Amazon, Google, and Microsoft planted so many server farms in Northern Virginia that data centers now consume roughly 40% of the state's electricity – up from less than 5% in 2010.
Dominion Energy used that explosion in demand to justify rate increases that add $16 a month to the typical residential bill – approved this past November.
Virginia's own legislative watchdog warned that costs could double or triple for ordinary homeowners within the decade if nothing changes.
The state eventually created a separate rate class forcing data centers to pay at least 85% of their contracted electricity demand.
But they did it after Amazon and Google were already in the ground, already drawing power, already politically untouchable.
Florida just drew the line before any of that happens here.
DeSantis vs. Trump – and Why Floridians Win Either Way
Gov. Ron DeSantis has been unusually candid about the political divide this issue creates inside the Republican Party.
President Trump has positioned himself as the AI industry's chief ally, signing an executive order in December directing the Justice Department to review state regulations deemed too restrictive on AI companies.
DeSantis read that order and isn't budging.
"The president issued an executive order. Some people were saying well no, this blocks the states," DeSantis said at Florida Atlantic University in December. "It doesn't."
DeSantis spelled out his reasoning in plain terms: "I don't think there's very many people that want to have higher energy bills just so a chatbot can try to corrupt some 13-year-old kid online."
https://twitter.com/KickboxerEsq/status/2005668310734524611?s=20
That's not a governor who got captured by tech money.
That's a governor who looked at Virginia homeowners paying $16 more every month so Amazon and Google can run their servers – and decided Florida families come first.
The Florida House is a different story.
Speaker Daniel Perez has been reluctant to advance the broader AI Bill of Rights, preferring to let Washington go first.
The data center bill's House companion passed committee Thursday, but the Senate's AI Bill of Rights – which would ban companion chatbots from accessing minors without parental consent and require AI companies to disclose when Floridians are talking to a machine – was postponed on the Senate floor for the second consecutive day.
The bill that did pass?
It targets the wallet.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2000696952623665456?s=20
Virginia's $16-a-month lesson makes the case for every Florida homeowner: the time to protect ratepayers is before the data centers move in, not after they're drawing a gigawatt of power from the same grid that runs your air conditioning in August.
DeSantis saw the pattern.
The Florida Senate agreed unanimously.
Now it's the House's turn.
Sources:
- Jim Turner, News Service of Florida, "Florida Senate unanimously passes restrictions for large-scale data centers," WUSF, February 26, 2026.
- Liv Caputo, "Florida Senate unanimously approves bill to regulate AI data centers," The Phoenix Flyer, February 26, 2026.
- "SCC Issues Order on DEV Biennial Review 2025," Virginia State Corporation Commission, November 2025.
- Shannon Heckt, "Bill would put more energy costs on data centers, slash residential customers' rates," Virginia Mercury, February 10, 2026.
- "Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Proposal for Citizen Bill of Rights for Artificial Intelligence," Executive Office of the Governor of Florida, 2025.
- "Gov. DeSantis, Florida House differ on AI legislation," WUSF, February 10, 2026.
- "New data centers would drive up energy costs, climate risks in Florida," The Invading Sea, January 16, 2026.
