[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 94 (Tuesday, July 18, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S7766]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ALLEN (for himself, Mr. Bingaman, and Mrs. Boxer):
  S. 3684. A bill to study and promote the use of energy efficient 
computer servers in the United States; to the Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources.
  Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join the Senator from 
Virginia as an original cosponsor of legislation to study and promote 
the use of energy efficient computer servers in the United States. The 
growth of the Internet and online applications and the strong demand 
for electronic transactions are creating a growing need for data 
centers. Most data center equipment is composed of servers, which are 
computers that share resources with other computers on a network.
  The average annual power and cooling bill for 100 servers is about 
$40,000--from Computer World, February 6, 2006. The U.S. server market 
is expected to grow from 2.8 billion servers in 2005 to 4.9 billion in 
2009. Without improved efficiency, data center power costs could easily 
overtake hardware costs in the next few years--A. Fanara, EPA, 
technical workshop on server benchmarking, March 27, 2006.
  Our bill would require the Administrator of EPA to study and analyze 
the growth and energy consumption of computer data centers. A critical 
goal of the study is to develop a standard way to measure server 
efficiency. Energy efficient servers and data center designs are 
currently available. This analysis would help promote the use of 
efficient server technology through the Energy Star Program or the 
Department of Energy's buildings standards program and allow consumers 
to compare products on the basis of efficiency.
  This legislation has broad support from the information technology 
sector and energy efficiency advocates, including the Alliance to Save 
Energy, the American Electronics Association, the American Council for 
an Energy Efficient Economy, the Electronic Industries Alliance, the 
Information Technology Industry Council, the Semiconductor Association, 
and leading companies such as Intel, AMD, Sun, and HP.
  Mr. President, under the bipartisan leadership of Representative 
Eshoo, and Representative Rogers, the House approved identical 
legislation last week. I hope that the Senate will also pass this 
needed legislation as soon as possible.

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