In a bipartisan team-up, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley are demanding more transparency regarding the energy use of data centers.
The pair sent a letter to the Energy Information Administration on Thursday, urging the EIA to “establish a mandatory annual reporting requirement for data centers.” Wired reported the news earlier.
Data centers have become a major topic of debate, as tech giants like Amazon Web Services, Google, Meta and Microsoft continue to buy massive amounts of land to house artificial intelligence data centers. While some landowners are taking the payouts, others — like a Kentucky woman and her mother, who turned down $26 million to sell their land — are holding out because of their opposition to data centers.
The interested buyer in Kentucky remains anonymous, but the landowner told WLKY they were described as a “major artificial intelligence company.”
Not only do data centers need large plots of land for their infrastructure, but they also require substantial water and electricity to operate. The exact amounts are not always known, which is why the senators are urging the change.
The collected information would help with grid planning and “will support policymaking to prevent large companies from increasing electricity costs for American families,” Warren and Hawley’s letter stated in part.
BloombergNEF reports that by 2035, the energy demand for data centers will more than double.
On Wednesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to pause all data center construction until the government enacts safeguards.
“AI and robotics are creating the most sweeping technological revolution in the history of humanity,” Sanders said in a statement. “The scale, scope and speed of that change is unprecedented. Congress is way behind where it should be in understanding the nature of this revolution and its impacts.”
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