The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Ratepayer Protection Act on September 16 by a near-unanimous vote of 417 to 3, sending shares of nuclear and advanced reactor developers sharply higher. The bill requires data centers consuming more than 100 megawatts to cover the incremental grid, transmission and distribution costs they create, rather than passing those expenses to households and small businesses.
Oklo jumped 11.31% on Thursday, trading around $39.90 in Friday premarket, while X-Energy rose 12.08% to $16.33 and NuScale Power gained 8.92%. Oklo is developing the Aurora powerhouse, a liquid-metal fast reactor that can generate up to 15 megawatts. The market logic is that if data centers bear full grid-upgrade costs, operators may increasingly choose behind-the-meter generation such as small modular reactors.
The bill does not automatically force states to adopt the standard. It uses Section 111(d) of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act to require state utility commissions to consider adopting rules for large data centers, including financial assurances before utilities begin new infrastructure. The legislation codifies parts of the voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge signed at the White House in March by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI.
Analyst views remain mixed but largely constructive on Oklo: the stock has a Buy consensus rating and an average price target of $85.46. Piper Sandler initiated coverage with Overweight and a $55 target, while Truist and Citigroup trimmed targets to $51 and $57.50. Despite the rally, Oklo remains below its 20, 50, 100 and 200-day moving averages, with an RSI near 48.04 and resistance around $45.
However, the market reaction faded quickly, with Oklo slipping to about $37.82 the next session. Analysts noted the bill is a political signal rather than a legal mandate because states remain free to reject the standard, and the Senate has not taken up the measure. The vote nevertheless highlights growing cross-partisan pressure over data center electricity demand, with estimates that data-center growth has already added roughly $23 billion to consumer bills.
