On Thursday, two U.S. Senators launched the latest initiative in the growing campaign against data centers and their substantial energy consumption. Senators Josh Hawley and Elizabeth Warren dispatched a letter to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), urging the agency to gather comprehensive data on data center energy usage and its impact on the nation’s electrical grid.
In the letter, which TechCrunch has reviewed, the senators pressed the EIA “to implement a mandatory annual reporting requirement for data centers and other significant energy consumers.” They emphasized, “As electricity demand continues its rapid increase following years of relative stability, the absence of dependable, standardized data on major load energy consumption presents considerable risks to effective grid planning and oversight.” Wired was the first to report on this communication.
This letter is not the first instance of lawmakers seeking to impose new regulatory obligations on data centers. Just the day before, on Wednesday, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced their intention to introduce legislation that would impose a moratorium on new data center construction until Congress can reach a consensus on AI regulation.
Data center energy consumption has seen explosive growth in recent years. For instance, Google’s data centers alone doubled their power usage between 2020 and 2024. This trend is unlikely to reverse soon; projections indicate that by 2035, new data centers currently being planned will nearly triple the sector’s total energy demand.
The EIA is a governmental body responsible for gathering and analyzing data pertaining to the energy system, functioning akin to a Census bureau for the power grid. It was established in 1977 under the Department of Energy, following the oil crises of the early 1970s.
For decades, the EIA has amassed extensive information on energy use across the U.S., encompassing costs, generation sources, and energy efficiency initiatives. While it monitors energy consumption across various sectors, its focus has been on four broad categories: residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation.
Hawley and Warren are also pushing the EIA to collect more detailed information specifically on data centers, including distinctions in energy consumption between AI computing operations and general cloud services.
The senators have laid out very specific demands for the nature of this data, including hourly, annual, and peak energy loads, as well as the rates paid by companies. They also seek information on any grid infrastructure upgrades necessitated by the introduction of new large loads, how these upgrades are funded, and whether data center clients participate in demand response programs, which compensate high-volume users for temporarily reducing their energy draw.
The letter references EIA administrator Tristan Abbey, who stated in December that the agency would be an “essential player” in collecting data regarding energy demand from data centers. Hawley and Warren have requested a response from the agency by April 9.
It is plausible that the process is already in motion, though the EIA has not publicly confirmed it. Any modifications to EIA surveys must undergo the Office of Management and Budget’s review process, which mandates a period for public comment.
“We frequently receive requests for analysis. We receive fewer requests for an entirely new product,” Abbey remarked at a public event in December. “It generally takes about two years to launch a new survey from scratch. However, existing authorities allow for surveys of a smaller scope, potentially yielding a clearer signal, thereby circumventing the two-year process.”