Review

Require that development projects make all electricity use public in monthly reporting, including whether or not a data center exceeds the energy capacity detailed in the will serve letter. This information must be submitted to the local agency overseeing the permitting process to ensure compliance with the terms of the conditional permit. Information should also be reported to a state agency that gathers and discloses this information online. For more information about how states can track and publish these metrics online, see Establish a Statewide Clearinghouse.

Statewide review of data center projects is important to adequately track and evaluate resources that go into data center development, including interconnection requests, energy use, water usage, emissions from on-site generation, tax subsidies, and jobs. This process can and should evaluate all projects that use, plan to use, or are able to use 20 megawatts (MW) or more, even if those projects are powered with behind-the-meter energy, since they would not interconnect to the electric grid.

Prohibit the Department of Energy or any other federal agency from leasing land or providing easements to private developers to build AI infrastructure on public land. This includes actual data centers and the infrastructure to support them, like on-site electricity generation and backup electricity facilities, natural gas and carbon capture and storage pipelines, and off-site energy projects.

Require all data center projects—whether or not they receive federal support—to report the following transparency measures to a federal agency charged with monitoring, tracking, and enforcing transparency requirements:

Before Operation Begins

Require the following information to be certified in a public clearinghouse (a publicly available database). Federal agencies should retain the right to revoke or suspend data center permits for failing to adequately disclose the following metrics:

Financial Vehicles

Names of all companies involved in a data center project (including developer, shell companies, data center operators and/or end users, and financers).

Water Usage

Comprehensive accounting of the data center’s projected water usage (broken out by month), including projected water used in construction, server cooling, facility cooling (including cooling towers) and other ancillary water uses; projected water sources; anticipated water-conservation plan; and water infrastructure costs.

Energy Usage and Infrastructure Needs

Comprehensive accounting of the data center’s projected monthly energy usage; breakdown of all necessary costs to service the data center, including transmission, energy generation, capacity, and financing costs.

Energy Emissions and Air Quality

Projected value of all on-site energy emissions. Require the installation and use of best-in-class technology to continuously monitor and report air quality.

Labor

Require projected breakout of temporary and permanent jobs, including number of full-time employees, subcontractors, and temporary workers.

Environmental Review

Mandate that the construction of each data center be treated (1) as a major federal action, and (2) as a major impact on the environment under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), thereby making each subject to a few environmental impact statements (EIS). At a minimum, an EIS must evaluate

• water withdrawals, and sources
• water discharge and thermal pollution
• local and regional electricity-systems impacts
• backup generation emissions
• air pollution and particulate emissions
• chemicals used for cooling
• noise impacts
• cumulative impacts, and
• disparate impacts.

After Operation Begins

Federal agencies must monitor and enforce transparency metrics. Failure to properly disclose metrics will result in revocation of permit or operating license.

Financial Vehicles

Annual reporting of all companies involved in a data center project (including developer, shell companies, data center operators and/or end users, and financers).

Water Usage

Require monthly, comprehensive accounting of the data center’s actual water usage, including projected water used in construction, server cooling, facility cooling (including cooling towers), and other ancillary water uses; projected water sources; anticipated water-conservation plan; and water infrastructure costs.

Energy Usage and Infrastructure Needs

Require comprehensive accounting of the data center’s monthly energy usage; and annual summary of costs necessary to service them, including from transmission, energy generation, capacity, and financing.

Energy Emissions and Air Quality 

Actual value of all on-site energy emissions and air quality metrics must be reported monthly.

Labor

Require annual breakout of temporary and permanent jobs, including number of full-time employees, subcontractors, and temporary workers. Include demographics such as race, gender identity, sexual orientation, education level, and pay and benefits data for each represented group. Include client overhead cost for the bill-rate per head count of subcontracted workers, organized by job title.

Clearinghouse Transparency

The clearinghouse must also publish the following information to ensure transparency about any federal agencies issuing permits for a data center project and its associated on- and off-site infrastructure:

Lead Agency

There should be a lead agency designated for the project, and the contact information for the staff of that agency should be publicly accessible.

Permit Status

All agencies issuing permits for a data center project and its associated on- and off-site infrastructure must regularly update the status of their respective permits for the project.

Comment Period

All deadlines for the comment periods of each permit must be clearly communicated.

Review

Estimated timelines for any necessary environmental review and transparent completion dates for any required permitting must be clearly communicated.