Summary#
This bill tells the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to run an annual, voluntary survey asking every U.S. data center for its prior-year energy and water use. NTIA must publish the results online, show them on an interactive U.S. map, identify data centers that did not provide complete information, summarize public comments, and send Congress a report with recommendations about data center regulation and transparency. NTIA must start the survey within 180 days of the law and repeat it every year. The agency must coordinate with the EPA, the Department of Energy, and others.
- Main change: creates a yearly, voluntary federal survey of data center energy and water consumption and a public reporting requirement.
- Publication: results must be posted on NTIA’s main website using an interactive map and must show which centers did not fully respond.
- Comments and report: the public and certain organizations can submit comments; NTIA must include a comments summary and send Congress recommendations to improve regulation and transparency.
- Coordination: NTIA must work with EPA, DOE, and other federal agencies.
- Definition: the bill uses the legal definition of “data center” from the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007; that exact definition is not included in the provided material.
What it means for you#
- Data center operators: NTIA will ask each operator, on a voluntary basis, to give 1 year of energy use and 1 year of water use data. If an operator does not give full information, the center may be listed publicly as incomplete.
- Local utilities and regulators: they can submit comments and may find the published data useful for planning or oversight.
- Workers and labor organizations: they can submit comments and may use the survey results to raise workplace or community concerns.
- General public and consumer groups: you can submit comments and view the interactive map and survey results online. The map could let communities see local data center resource use.
- Federal agencies (EPA, DOE): NTIA must coordinate with them on the survey and reporting.
- Congress: will receive a report with recommendations that could lead to future rules or laws about data centers.
- If you use cloud services or the internet: this bill does not directly change service prices or availability. It only collects and publishes resource-use data (and it is voluntary).
Expenses#
No clear fiscal estimate is included in the supplied material.
- The bill requires NTIA to set up and run an annual survey, publish an interactive map, summarize comments, and prepare a report to Congress. These activities would likely create administrative costs for NTIA.
- Coordination with EPA, DOE, and other agencies may add staff time or technical costs for those agencies.
- Data centers could incur time and record-keeping costs to gather and submit their energy and water use data.
- There is no estimate here of total dollars, staffing needs, or whether new funding is provided.
- No publicly available information on specific costs or a fiscal note was included with the material provided.
Proponents' View#
- The bill appears intended to increase transparency about how much energy and water U.S. data centers use.
- Supporters may argue that public data will help policymakers, utilities, and communities plan for energy and water demand.
- The information could be used to identify where regulation or incentives might be needed to reduce resource use or improve efficiency.
- Publishing which centers do not fully respond could encourage voluntary disclosure and better data quality.
- Annual reporting allows tracking of trends over time.
Opponents' View#
- One concern is that the survey is voluntary, so data may be incomplete or biased if many operators do not respond. This would limit how useful the results are.
- It is unclear how “data center” is defined, because the bill refers to an external law for that term; that could create ambiguity about which facilities must be asked to report.
- The bill does not explain how NTIA will protect confidential or commercially sensitive information, which could be a worry for companies.
- There is no budget estimate here; critics may point to possible federal and private costs for running the survey and collecting data.
- Reputational effects of publicly listing non-responders could be seen as pressure without offering a mandatory or standardized reporting process.
- The bill does not specify data formats, verification methods, or penalties for false or missing information, leaving questions about data quality and enforcement.