Sponsors (2)
Official title: To require data center operators to submit to States or the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Secretaries of Energy and Agriculture reports on data center energy and water use, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 22, 2026 by Lauren Underwood · Last progress July 22, 2026
The bill boosts transparency and incentivizes data‑center energy and water efficiency through standardized metrics, planning, and fee‑funded reporting, but does so by imposing new costs and penalties on operators, adding administrative complexity across jurisdictions, and reducing congressional oversight of program funds.
Data center operators, utilities, and state/local governments will have standardized metrics (PUE and WUE) plus required five‑year projected energy and water use and reduction plans, enabling benchmarking, targeted efficiency investments, and reduced local utility strain.
Local governments, state governments, and communities will get publicly reported aggregated regional energy and water use data, improving visibility into local demand pressures for planning and regulation.
Data center operators and federal agencies will use user fees to fund the reporting program so implementation and processing can begin without waiting for congressional appropriations, speeding program startup and operations.
Data center operators (and likely their customers) will incur new and recurring compliance costs — from required measurement and reporting to assessed program fees — and face civil penalties (up to $20,000/day) for negligent violations, raising operating costs that may be passed to customers and taxpayers.
State governments, Freely Associated States, tribes, and data center operators will face administrative complexity and possible duplicate reporting because expanded statutory coverage and uneven state collection programs may force reliance on federal collection and increase implementation burdens.
Taxpayers and Congress will have reduced spending oversight because agencies may spend collected fees without further appropriation, concentrating program funding authority outside normal appropriations review.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires large data centers (≥25 MW) to report annual on‑site energy and water use, PUE/WUE, and 5‑year projections to States or federal agencies, and authorizes fees to cover implementation.
Requires large data center operators to disclose annual on‑site energy and water use, efficiency metrics, and near‑term projections to the State where a facility operates (or to EPA and the designated federal Secretaries if the State does not collect the data). Sets a 25 megawatt peak demand threshold for covered facilities, adopts industry metrics (PUE and WUE), requires pre‑construction/project expansion projections for new or enlarged centers meeting the threshold, and authorizes agencies to charge fees to cover implementation costs.