Gonnelli Wants Jersey City Mayor To Help Him Fight NJSEA On Data Centers

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Ratepayer Protection Act, an effort by Congress meant to protect Americans from footing the high electric costs of AI data centers.

But the bill stalled in the Senate on Thursday, because one lone Senator, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, said the bill does not go far enough to force AI data centers to pay for own massive electricity consumption.

The Ratepayer Protection Act (read it here) would require states to "consider implementing a federal standard for large-load customers."

(A large-load customer is defined as an electric consumer that uses 100 megawatts or more. To give you an idea of how much electricity that is, 100 megawatts of electricity is enough to power 50,000 to 100,000 homes at any given moment. Also, only the absolute biggest data centers in America use 100 megawatts of electricity, such as the planned NVIDIA data center in Virginia. Most data centers, such as the ones located in Secaucus, do not use 100 megawatts.)

The bill would also require states to, again, "consider" holding certain large-load customers responsible for the cost of improving the electric grid.

The New Mexico Senator said he voted "no" because the bill isn't tough enough.

"It’s not enough for us to just tell states to consider making data centers pay for grid upgrades. Rather than voluntary pledges or suggestions to states, Congress needs to pass real legislation with real teeth," said Heinrich.

The House bill is “somewhat behind the regulatory curve” according to this report Thursday from an energy industry newsletter.

New Jersey is one state that is already making large-scale data centers pay a different electricity rate than homeowners. The state of New Jersey hastily passed that in July, and many other states across the U.S. are passing something similar, as data centers — particularly AI data centers — are being built across the country.

Meanwhile, Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli, who has taken a tremendous amount of criticism after it's come to light that there are nine data centers in operation in town, and more planned, continues to now say it's the NJ Sports & Exposition Authority that authorizes data centers.

In fact, Gonnelli is now trying to build an allegiance with Jersey City Mayor James Solomon to fight the NJSEA.

Gonnelli told a reporter from the Jersey City Times this week that he and Solomon should team up to battle the NJSEA for allowing data centers in Secaucus, and for approving a solid-waste facility at 25 Van Keuren Avenue in Jersey City.

“If they want to put dumps in Jersey City or data centers in Secaucus, they can do it, if they do it on land that’s in their jurisdiction. We have to change their zoning laws if we want to stop these things from coming into our communities,” Gonnelli told the Jersey City Times Wednesday. "88% of Secaucus is in the Meadowlands, and they approve the data centers. Almost 90% of our town is in their jurisdiction. So there’s not much we can do to stop them from coming here.”

“If [Jersey City Mayor James] Solomon wants to get rid of that dump, tell him to call me,” Gonnelli told the Jersey City Times.

As of Friday, Solomon has not responded to Gonnelli's offer, neither publicly nor via his X account.

Earlier this week, the NJSEA said that's not exactly true, and that Secaucus has yay-or-nay approval over the town's latest proposed data center, at 215 County Avenue. The NJSEA also did not immediately respond to Gonnelli's latest comments to the Jersey City Times, but Patch is researching them.

Data Centers Are One Reason New Jersey Electric Bills Have Gotten So High (June 5, 2026)