[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9183 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 9183
To require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to
carry out a study on the environmental impacts of artificial
intelligence data centers and associated energy infrastructure, to
require the Director of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology to convene a consortium on such environmental impacts, and
to require the Administrator to develop a reporting system for the
reporting of the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 8, 2026
Mr. Beyer (for himself and Ms. Barragan) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology,
and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to
carry out a study on the environmental impacts of artificial
intelligence data centers and associated energy infrastructure, to
require the Director of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology to convene a consortium on such environmental impacts, and
to require the Administrator to develop a reporting system for the
reporting of the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Artificial Intelligence
Environmental Impacts Act of 2026''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Multiple estimates indicate that the amount of
computational power being used for artificial intelligence
applications has increased rapidly over the last decade.
(2) According to the Department of Energy, data center
energy demand has tripled in the last decade and is expected to
double or triple again by 2028.
(3) Accelerating use of artificial intelligence greatly
increases energy consumption due to the power utilization of
computer hardware required for training and operating
artificial intelligence models, despite ongoing efficiency
gains in both artificial intelligence models and hardware.
(4) Rapid growth in data center infrastructure supporting
artificial intelligence and other computing-intensive
technologies, including cooling systems and backup power
equipment, can contribute to air and water pollution, increased
energy demand, increasing water scarcity, and land-use changes.
(5) According to the Department of Energy, hyperscale
facilities are projected to consume between 16,000,000,000 and
33,000,000,000 gallons annually by 2028.
(6) Resource and energy-intensive manufacturing processes
are required for the hardware that runs artificial intelligence
and other computing-intensive technologies, leading to
significant environmental impacts.
(7) Electricity prices have already risen significantly as
demand from data centers grows, and are projected to continue
rising rapidly.
(8) According to the Energy Information Agency, between
January, 2025, and December, 2025, household electricity prices
increased by as much as 13 percent nationwide.
(9) Prices are projected to rise by another 25 percent in
certain places over the next five years due to increased demand
from data centers.
(10) Yearly increases in electronic waste (known as ``e-
waste'') pose environmental and health risks and will likely be
exacerbated by outdated and discarded hardware used for
artificial intelligence and other computing-intensive
technologies.
(11) Certain applications of artificial intelligence may
have direct and indirect positive environmental impacts,
including optimizing systems for energy efficiency, developing
renewable energy, advancing planetary systems research,
enabling discovery of new materials, and automatically
monitoring environmental changes. Applications of artificial
intelligence also have direct and indirect negative
environmental impacts, including rebound effects, behavioral
impacts, and accelerating high-pollution activities.
(12) Different communities and regions will experience
disparate effects from data center infrastructure, with risks
ranging from higher energy costs to more adverse environmental
effects, and with certain communities at greater risk from
cumulative negative impacts, such as low-income communities,
Black and Brown communities, Indigenous communities, and rural
communities.
(13) Various options exist to reduce the negative
environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, including
using more energy-efficient and water-efficient models,
hardware, and data centers, using renewable and co-located
energy, and examining the impacts of artificial intelligence
applications.
(14) Promoting transparency on energy use and environmental
impacts and developing and maintaining accurate environmental
impact metrics may help mitigate negative environmental impacts
of the rapid growth in artificial intelligence use, while
promoting artificial intelligence uses with net positive
environmental impacts.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
(2) Artificial intelligence.--The term ``artificial
intelligence'' has the meaning given the term in section 5002
of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020
(15 U.S.C. 9401).
(3) Artificial intelligence data center.--The term
``artificial intelligence data center'' means any facility, or
group of facilities that--
(A) is located on a single site or on contiguous,
adjacent, or otherwise connected sites;
(B) has a maximum rated power capacity or total
peak power load in excess of 50 megawatts; and
(C) houses and operates infrastructure for the
purpose of artificial intelligence inference, training,
pre-training, fine-tuning, or deployment at scale.
(4) Artificial intelligence model.--The term ``artificial
intelligence model'' means a component of an information system
that implements artificial intelligence technology and uses
computational, statistical, or machine-learning techniques to
produce outputs from a given set of inputs.
(5) Artificial intelligence system.--The term ``artificial
intelligence system'' means any data system, software,
hardware, application, tool, or utility that operates in whole
or in part using artificial intelligence.
SEC. 4. STUDY ON ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY-RELATED IMPACTS OF ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE.
(a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment
of this Act, the Administrator, in collaboration with the Secretary of
Energy, the Director of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology
Policy, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, shall carry out, submit to Congress, and make
publicly available a report describing the results of, a comprehensive
study on the environmental and energy-related impacts of artificial
intelligence and related infrastructure.
(b) Requirements.--The study required under subsection (a) shall
include an examination of the following issues and a forecast for how
those issues are expected to change during the 2-year, 5-year, and 10-
year periods beginning on the date on which the study is completed:
(1) Full lifecycle impacts of artificial intelligence.--The
energy and water use, effects on air and water quality, effects
on local ecosystems, local noise and light impacts, energy cost
impacts, and the direct, indirect, and value chain greenhouse
gas emissions associated with the full lifecycle of artificial
intelligence, including effects and impacts associated with--
(A) hardware needed for artificial intelligence,
including the extraction of raw materials,
manufacturing, electronic waste, and transportation
between all stages associated with that hardware;
(B) the design, development, deployment, and use of
artificial intelligence models; and
(C) the operation of artificial intelligence data
centers to power artificial intelligence, including
effects relating to--
(i) energy infrastructure, including new or
existing grid infrastructure, behind-the-meter
primary onsite power sources, and backup onsite
power sources;
(ii) water use, high-temperature water
discharge, and the use of chemical biocides;
(iii) land use for artificial intelligence
data centers and related energy infrastructure,
particularly with respect to scenic,
historical, and cultural landscapes and units
of the National Park System or locations
included on the National Register of Historic
Places; and
(iv) cooling systems and other
infrastructure.
(2) Design and location.--The effect that design and
deployment decisions for artificial intelligence models and
associated artificial intelligence data centers have on the
impacts described in paragraph (1), including design and
deployment decisions with respect to--
(A) the artificial intelligence model to be used;
(B) hardware;
(C) location;
(D) energy mix;
(E) behind-the-meter generation;
(F) the use of power purchase agreements;
(G) demand flexibility;
(H) cooling system methodology; and
(I) artificial intelligence data center user
ownership and leasing arrangements.
(3) Disaster resilience.--The impacts of artificial
intelligence data centers on disaster resilience, including
with respect to local water and energy stress during extreme
weather events.
(4) Positive impacts.--The potential positive environmental
and energy-related impacts associated with applications of
artificial intelligence, which may include optimizing systems
for energy efficiency, developing renewable energy, advancing
planetary systems research, enabling discovery of new
materials, and automatically monitoring environmental changes.
(5) Negative impacts.--The negative environmental and
energy-related impacts associated with applications of
artificial intelligence and related infrastructure, which may
include direct impacts from data center construction and
operation, higher local energy costs, rebound effects,
behavioral impacts, and accelerating high-pollution activities,
such as fossil fuel extraction.
(6) Updated study results.--The results of the updated data
center study carried out under section 453(e)(2) of the Energy
Independence and Security Act of 2007 (42 U.S.C. 17112(e)(2)).
(7) Other environmental and energy-related impacts.--Other
environmental and energy-related impacts, as determined by the
Administrator, in consultation with the heads of Federal
agencies described in subsection (a).
(c) Public Input.--
(1) Public comment required.--In conducting the study
required under subsection (a), the Administrator shall solicit
and consider public comments.
(2) Public hearings.--Not later than 1 year after the date
of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall convene
public hearings with respect to the environmental and energy-
related impacts of artificial intelligence and related
infrastructure in each region of the Environmental Protection
Agency to capture unique regional considerations.
SEC. 5. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY-RELATED
IMPACTS CONSORTIUM.
(a) In General.--The Director of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology shall, in consultation with the Administrator,
the Secretary of Energy, and such others as the Director considers
appropriate, convene a consortium of stakeholders, including members
from Indian Tribes, units of local government, academia, civil society,
and industry, to identify the future measurements, methodologies,
standards, and other appropriate needs, in order to measure and report
the full range of environmental and energy-related impacts of
artificial intelligence.
(b) Location.--The Director may determine the location of the
consortium within the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
(c) Goals.--The goals of the consortium shall include the
following:
(1) Facilitating consistent, comparable reporting on the
environmental impacts of the full lifecycle of artificial
intelligence models and artificial intelligence systems.
(2) According to technical feasibility, the development or
cataloging of open-source software and hardware tools and other
resources designed to facilitate the measurement of
environmental impacts of artificial intelligence models and
artificial intelligence systems.
(3) Providing recommendations on how to mitigate the
negative environmental impacts and deploy the positive use
cases, of artificial intelligence.
(d) Composition.--The consortium shall--
(1) be composed of representatives with equal
representation between each stakeholder group; and
(2) include at least 3 representatives each from--
(A) geographically distinct Tribal communities
within which artificial intelligence data centers
reside; and
(B) geographically distinct cities or counties
within which artificial intelligence data centers
reside.
SEC. 6. SYSTEM FOR REPORTING OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY-RELATED
IMPACTS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
(a) Definition of Covered Entity.--In this section, the term
``covered entity'' means an entity that operates an artificial
intelligence data center.
(b) Reports to EPA.--A covered entity shall annually submit to the
Administrator a report that describes the full range of environmental
impacts of the artificial intelligence data centers of the relevant
entity in accordance with this section.
(c) Report Requirements.--
(1) In general.--The Administrator, in consultation with
the Director of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, the Secretary of Energy, the consortium convened
under section 5, and such other entities as the Administrator
considers appropriate, shall develop requirements for covered
entities to report under subsection (b) the full range of
environmental impacts of artificial intelligence data centers,
which shall--
(A) include guidelines on how to calculate and
report--
(i) the resource consumption and intensity
with respect to energy use, including
electricity use and capacity, resource mix,
power sourced from the grid, power sourced from
on-site generation, power sourced from backup
systems, power usage effectiveness, performance
per watt, energy reuse, and carbon intensity
per task;
(ii) the resource consumption and intensity
with respect to water use;
(iii) local air and water pollution;
(iv) electronic waste associated with the
full lifecycle of artificial intelligence
models and hardware;
(v) local noise and light pollution
impacts; and
(vi) other positive and negative impacts of
artificial intelligence use, as determined by
the Administrator;
(B) require sufficient detail to allow the
Administrator to verify the accuracy and completeness
of the submission; and
(C) require reports to be prepared in a manner that
enables public disclosure under subsection (d).
(2) Public comment.--Before finalizing the requirements
under paragraph (1), the Administrator shall solicit comments
from the public on a draft version of the requirements.
(3) Publication.--The Administrator shall make available to
the public all requirements developed under paragraph (1).
(d) Availability.--The Administrator shall, to the maximum extent
practicable, make the information reported pursuant to subsection (b)
available on a publicly available website, except for any information
that is exempt from disclosure pursuant to section 552(b)(4) of title
5, United States Code.
(e) Enforcement.--If a covered entity fails to comply with the
reporting requirements under this section, the Administrator shall seek
corrective action and, if no reports under subsection (b) are submitted
within 6 months of the date on which a report was due, may issue an
administrative penalty in an amount determined by the Administrator
that is based on--
(1) the total size of the applicable facilities of the
covered entity for which reports have not been submitted; and
(2) the length of noncompliance.
(f) Savings Provision.--Nothing in this section abridges, alters,
or modifies the obligations of the Administrator to disclose
information pursuant to any other applicable law, including section 552
of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the ``Freedom of
Information Act'').
SEC. 7. REPORT TO CONGRESS.
After the Director of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology convenes the consortium under section 5 and not later than 2
years after the date on which the Administrator completes development
of the requirements for reporting under section 6(c), the
Administrator, the Secretary of Energy, and the Director of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology shall jointly submit to
Congress a report detailing the following:
(1) The main findings of the consortium convened under
section 5.
(2) A description of the information reported under section
6.
(3) Recommendations for legislative or administrative
action to mitigate the negative impacts of artificial
intelligence.
(4) Recommend use-cases for artificial intelligence in
environmental applications based on net-benefit assessments.
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