No Harm Data Centers Act

Key Points

• Large data centers using more than 50 megawatts of electricity would be required to pay the full cost of any new power lines, generating facilities, or grid upgrades needed to serve them — preventing those costs from being passed to regular customers.
• Electric utilities would be explicitly banned from shifting data center infrastructure costs onto the bills of residential customers and small businesses.
• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) would gain sole authority to approve electricity rates charged to large data centers, a major expansion of federal power over what has traditionally been a state-regulated area.
• Non-disclosure agreements that prevent local elected officials from talking publicly about data center construction projects would become unenforceable in court, increasing transparency for communities.
• The EPA would commission a National Academies study of data centers' environmental and public health impacts — including noise, air and water pollution, carbon emissions, and electronic waste — with a report due within 180 days.
• Violators of the new data center rate rules could face civil penalties of up to $10 million per day, giving the law serious enforcement teeth.