Data Center Water and Energy Transparency Act of 2026

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [S. 4213 Introduced in Senate (IS)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 4213 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. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 25, 2026 Mr. Durbin introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL 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. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Data Center Water and Energy Transparency Act of 2026''. SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. In this Act: (1) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. (2) Data center terms.--The terms ``data center'' and ``data center operator'' have the meanings given those terms in section 453(a) of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (42 U.S.C. 17112(a)). (3) Energy use.--The term ``energy use'', with respect to data centers, means the total quantity of electricity and other forms of energy consumed on site by that data center, as measured in kilowatt-hours. (4) Power usage effectiveness.--The term ``power usage effectiveness'' has the meaning given the term in ISO/IEC 30134-2:2026 of the International Organization for Standardization (or a successor standard). (5) Secretaries.--The term ``Secretaries'' means the Secretary of Ener