Data centers must disclose energy and water use; public gets regional impact reports.
S. 4213 — Data Center Water and Energy Transparency Act of 2026 · Filed by Richard Durbin (D-IL) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 25, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires data center operators to report annually to their states (or to federal agencies if the state has no reporting program) on energy and water consumption, efficiency metrics, and 5-year projections for facilities using 25+ megawatts. States and the federal government will publish aggregated, anonymized reports on data center impacts on regional water and electricity rates. Operators face $20,000-per-day federal fines for non-compliance, adjusted for inflation every 3 years.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is mandatory disclosure of energy and water use by data center operators to states and federal agencies, with public aggregation of environmental impacts. It is a transparency and accountability measure, not a subsidy, tax break, or deregulation.
What the text implies
- States gain authority to assess fees on data center operators to fund reporting programs, creating a new revenue stream and potential leverage over facility siting and expansion decisions.
- Aggregated public reports on regional water and electricity rate impacts may influence state and local permitting, tax incentives, and infrastructure investment decisions affecting data center expansion.
- Federal enforcement fines ($20,000/day, inflation-adjusted) create significant compliance cost pressure on operators, potentially shifting facility siting toward states with less stringent or lower-cost reporting regimes.
- Proprietary information exclusion in public reports may limit transparency on operator-specific efficiency gains and competitive practices, reducing the public's ability to benchmark performance.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens and communities gain transparency into data center resource consumption and environmental impacts, enabling informed local decision-making and accountability. States and the public receive aggregated data on how data centers affect regional water and electricity rates, supporting evidence-based policy and consumer awareness.
Named in the bill
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Agriculture, Data center operators, States, Units of local government, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 Democrats.
- Mar 25, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 25, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. (text: CR S1616-1617)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
4 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $535,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 22 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 72% of bills with at least one filing.
Richard Durbin, the sponsor, reported $-29,800 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Ocean Conservancy — $260,000 on 1 filing
- Santa Clara Valley Water District — $130,000 on 1 filing
- Association of California Water Agencies — $125,000 on 1 filing
- Technical Micronics Control, Inc. — $20,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 17, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (10,360 characters) on Apr 14, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Data centers must disclose energy and water use; public gets regional impact reports.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s4213 Report an error
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