Sponsors
The bill increases transparency and planning capacity around large data centers' energy and water use—helping avoid grid and water strain and informing local policy—while imposing new compliance costs, enforcement complexity, and broad fee authority that could raise costs for operators and consumers and reduce budgetary oversight.
State and local governments (and the electric and water utilities that serve them) receive regular, standardized data on large data centers' energy and water use so they can plan to avoid grid strain and local water shortages.
Communities and local policymakers gain aggregated, public reporting and federal recommendations about data center environmental impacts, giving local officials evidence to guide zoning, permitting, and mitigation decisions.
Operators must disclose projected energy and water use and reduction plans, which can support longer-term utility demand management and reduce future upward pressure on utility rates for consumers and taxpayers.
Large data center operators will face new compliance costs and statutory fines (including penalties cited up to $20,000/day for negligence), which could increase costs for operators and ultimately be passed on to customers and taxpayers.
Agencies may set and retain fees at levels they deem 'necessary' and spend them without appropriation, reducing congressional budget oversight and creating a risk of high or unpredictable fees that operators (and their customers) must bear.
Allowing states to impose fees and different enforcement requirements creates the risk of uneven regulatory costs across states, increasing complexity and compliance burdens for operators that work in multiple jurisdictions.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires large data centers (≥25 MW) to report on-site energy and water use, efficiency metrics (PUE/WUE), and five-year projections; states or federal agencies collect the data and may charge fees.
Introduced March 25, 2026 by Richard Joseph Durbin · Last progress March 25, 2026
Requires large data centers and proposed new or expanded facilities with peak demand of at least 25 megawatts to report on-site energy and water use, efficiency metrics (PUE and WUE), and five-year projections to the state where they operate; if a state lacks a collection program, reports go to the EPA Administrator and the Secretaries (Energy and Agriculture). States and the federal agencies may set reporting formats, collect fees to run the programs, and the federal agencies may use collected fees without further appropriation.