Sponsors (2)
The bill increases transparency and funds clean firm resources to reduce electricity-sector emissions and improve grid planning, but it does so by imposing emissions‑based fees and reporting requirements that raise costs for data centers, cryptomining operations, and potentially utilities and consumers while creating confidentiality risks for facility operators.
State, tribal, municipal governments and utilities can access grant funding for clean firm generation and storage projects, lowering future electricity emissions and improving grid reliability for many communities.
Owners/operators, investors, utilities, and local communities get standardized, public facility-level electricity use and grid emissions intensity data, giving clearer evidence to plan capacity, upgrades, and investments.
Facilities that power themselves entirely with zero‑carbon electricity are exempt from fees, creating a direct financial incentive for covered facilities to deploy or contract for clean energy.
Covered facilities (data centers and cryptomining sites) face direct per‑kWh fees on behind‑the‑meter and grid electricity emissions above regional baselines and could face additional regulatory restrictions, raising operating costs for facility owners and tenants and potentially increasing cloud and IT service costs for businesses and consumers.
Electric utilities serving high‑emitting covered facilities face new excess‑emissions fees that could increase utilities' operating costs and prompt cost‑shifting to customers, rate restructuring, consumer disputes, and additional regulatory monitoring and enforcement costs.
Public disclosure of facility‑level energy use and emissions intensity could reveal commercially sensitive information about operations and contracts despite limited confidentiality protections, risking competitive harm to facility owners and tenants.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Creates a Clean Air Act reporting requirement for annual electricity use and on-site generation source data from data centers and cryptomining facilities above 100 kW and from their serving utilities.
Official title: Amend the Clean Air Act to establish requirements on the collection of electricity consumption data and emissions standards for servers and other computing equipment used for cryptocurrency mining, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 10, 2025 by Sheldon Whitehouse · Last progress April 10, 2025
Requires annual public data reporting on electricity use and power sources for medium-to-large data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities and directs EPA and EIA to collect that information to improve transparency about emissions from digital infrastructure. Sets definitions, reporting scope (facilities >100 kW IT nameplate power), and requires utilities that serve those facilities to report related information; includes a severability clause.