NEWS: Senators Blunt Rochester, Curtis Introduce Bills to Help Public Understand Impacts of Data Center

U.S. Senators Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and John Curtis (R-Utah) today introduced the Data Center Transparency Act of 2026 and the Data Center Community Empowerment Act of 2026 to improve understanding of data centers’ impacts on the environment and quality of life and increase community involvement in the development of future data centers. The Data Center Transparency Act would require federal agencies to collect information on data centers’ environmental impact, energy consumption, and water consumption. The Data Center Community Empowerment Act would give communities access to technical expertise to understand the potential benefits, costs, and infrastructure impacts of proposed data center development. The House companion to the Data Center Transparency Act is led by Congressman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.-8). “The development of data centers is rapidly increasing across the country, and there is legitimate concern about how these projects could raise utility bills, harm our environment, or impact public health,” said Senator Blunt Rochester . “I am proud to work with Senator Curtis to introduce The Data Center Transparency Act and the Data Center Community Empowerment Act to ensure communities have a say in how these projects impact their quality of life. These bills are a necessary step to create a safer, more inclusive, and informed process. “Americans are rightly skeptical when a large company tells them not to worry about the impacts of a new data center in their community,” said Senator Curtis . “The answer to that distrust is transparency. Communities deserve independent, reliable information about what these projects mean for their power bills, water, infrastructure, and local economy. These bills give local leaders the facts and expertise they need to ask tough questions and make informed decisions—without Washington or industry making those decisions for them.” The Data Center Transparency Act would: Require EPA to collect and update data every three months on the environmental impacts that data centers have on: Water consumption, utility costs, and potential pollutants; and Air pollution cumulative impacts and greenhouse gases. Require the Energy Information Administration to collect and update data on energy consumption of data centers, including total energy consumption of data centers, associated grid build-out, and impact on household energy bills every six months. The Data Center Community Empowerment Act would: Establish a program at the Department of Energy to: Provide technical assistance to State, local, and Tribal governments on the potential energy, water, infrastructure, economic, and other community impacts associated with data center development; Develop a Data Center Community Toolkit with easy-to-understand information and resources specifically designed for nontechnical local officials; Provide independent project analysis at a community’s request, including an assessment of information voluntarily provided by a data center developer and the reliability of its data and reasonableness of its assumptions, projections, and conclusions; and Preserve local decision-making by requiring DOE to remain neutral on individual data center projects and prohibiting the Department from recommending whether a particular project should be approved or rejected. The Data Center Transparency Act bill text can be found HERE , and the Data Center Community Empowerment Act bill text can be found HERE .