Roy Files Legislation To Track Data Center Water and Energy Use
U.S. Representative Chip Roy of Texas has filed legislation requiring the Department of Energy to track and report water and energy consumption by large-scale data centers. This comes as data center projects are rapidly increasing across Texas. The proposed bill details specific reporting requirements for both water and energy usage.
Republican U.S. Representative Chip Roy of Texas introduced legislation on Friday aimed at tracking the environmental impact of large-scale data centers. The bill mandates that the Department of Energy monitor and report the water and energy consumption of data centers that receive federal support or expedited permitting under a Trump administration executive order.
The proposed legislation, filed amidst a surge in data center projects across Texas, includes specific requirements for reporting. It differentiates between data centers utilizing closed-loop water recycling systems and those relying on open-loop systems that draw continuously from municipal supplies. Furthermore, the energy reporting would detail the costs associated with grid connections and identify whether these costs were covered by the data center operators, ratepayers, or federal subsidies. The bill specifically excludes data centers owned, operated, or maintained by federal agencies from these reporting requirements.