Proposals to regulate data centers’ energy use and environmental impacts are popping up as states balance high hopes for the fast-growing industry with concerns about electric reliability, consumer costs, and natural resource depletion.
Legislators in at least eight states have filed or plan to file bills setting eco-conscious guardrails on the industry, which is expected to consume up to 12% of total US electricity by 2028, according to a December report from the Department of Energy.
The bills are a response to the sheer volume of data centers—which are increasingly geared toward serving artificial intelligence—under development across the country and ...