Data Center Reinvestment Act

Summary#

This bill would add a new federal excise tax that charges large data centers 1 cent per kilowatt-hour for electricity they use. The bill defines a "data center" as a facility that mainly holds electronic equipment to process, store, or send digital information and that has a peak power load over 1 megawatt. The collected tax revenue would be split into five equal parts. One-fifth would go to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, one-fifth to the Housing Trust Fund, one-fifth to the Hazardous Substance Superfund, one-fifth to the Highway Trust Fund, and one-fifth to a new Energy Technology Trust Fund. The bill creates the Energy Technology Trust Fund and says its money may be used to pay costs of loan guarantees under title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The bill takes effect for electricity used and taxes received after the law is enacted.

What it means for you#

• Operators of data centers with peak power over 1 megawatt would pay the 1¢ per kWh excise tax on electricity they use.
• The bill assigns the tax revenue to specific funds for conservation, housing, hazardous substance cleanup, highways, and energy technology support.
• If you are not an operator of a large data center, the bill text does not state any direct changes to your obligations or benefits.

Expenses#

• The bill does not include estimates of total revenue, costs, or economic effects. No dollar amounts or revenue projections appear in the bill text.
• The bill requires that tax receipts be divided into five equal shares and transferred to the named funds and the new Energy Technology Trust Fund.
• The Highway Trust Fund language is amended to include one-fifth of these taxes alongside existing fuel and vehicle taxes.

Proponents' View#

No publicly available information.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information.