Sponsor
Charles Roy
Representative · R-TX
Representative · R-TX
The bill strengthens environmental protections, grid planning, and regulatory clarity for data centers at the cost of new reporting requirements, higher compliance costs, potential impacts on rural economic development, and some implementation/legal complexity.
Utilities, grid operators, and state regulators get facility-level power and water data for large data centers, improving grid planning, transmission reliability, drought resilience, and informing fair cost-allocation.
Rural communities and farmers avoid loss of water resources and productive farmland because siting of large data centers is restricted in sensitive areas and gives state/local governments stronger leverage to enforce protective standards.
Data center operators, utilities, and regulators gain clearer rules and predictability (a defined 'bulk-power system' scope and fixed initial/annual 365-day reporting periods), reducing ambiguity for compliance and planning.
Rural communities and local economies seeking growth may see slower data center investment and fewer jobs because federal support is limited for projects in sensitive locations.
Covered data centers (including many nonfederal and EO-qualified facilities) will face new reporting and regulatory obligations, increasing compliance and administrative costs for operators.
Higher developer compliance costs from siting constraints and reporting requirements could be passed on to taxpayers and customers as higher service or project costs.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires DOE (with EPA consultation) to report initially within 2 years and annually on covered data centers' electricity and public water use, recycling, and grid connection costs.
Official title: To direct the Secretary of Energy to report to Congress on the use of electric energy and water by certain data centers, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 22, 2026 by Charles Roy · Last progress May 22, 2026
Requires the Department of Energy, with EPA consultation, to produce an initial report within two years and annual reports after that on electricity and public water use by covered data centers. Reports must detail public water withdrawals and recycling, whether centers generate their own electricity or are grid consumers, and grid connection costs and payers. The bill defines covered data centers by reference to Executive Order 14318 and excludes certain federal agency projects.