Sponsors (2)
The bill improves transparency and grid planning and creates financial incentives to cut facility emissions, but it imposes new reporting requirements and fees that could raise costs for operators and ratepayers, risk local economic disruption, and — if fossil plants remain used for demand — worsen local air quality.
Utilities, grid operators, and communities get standardized facility-level data on electricity use and emissions so planners can anticipate data center and cryptomining load growth and better avoid outages or emergency measures.
Communities, regulators, and customers gain public GHG intensity and fuel‑mix data for covered facilities, enabling lower‑carbon procurement choices and pressure on operators to reduce emissions.
Owners and operators face fees on high‑emitting electricity that create financial incentives to deploy zero‑carbon generation and long‑duration storage, with fee revenue directed to grants and loans for low‑carbon projects.
Owners of covered data centers and cryptomining sites (and their customers) will face new reporting burdens, fees, and compliance costs starting in 2026, which can raise operating costs and ultimately increase prices for cloud and related services.
Electric utilities may incur significant fee liabilities for serving high‑emission covered facilities and could pass those costs on to other ratepayers unless enforcement and protections are robust.
If cryptomining is effectively restricted or made more costly, mining operations could relocate or shut down, disrupting local economies and jobs in communities that host them.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires EPA and EIA to collect annual facility- and utility-level electricity use and generation-source data from data centers and cryptomining sites above 100 kW.
Introduced April 10, 2025 by Sheldon Whitehouse · Last progress April 10, 2025
Requires the EPA, working with the Energy Information Administration (EIA), to collect yearly, facility-level and utility-level electricity and generation-source data from data centers and cryptomining facilities that have more than 100 kW of installed IT nameplate power, and from the utilities that serve them. Defines covered facilities and related terms, cites findings about rising electricity demand from data centers and proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining, and includes a severability clause. No new spending, enforcement penalties, or timetable for first reports are specified in the text provided.