Senate Demands Data Centers Reveal Power Bills

Two U.S. senators have escalated their campaign against data centers and their energy consumption, sending a letter to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday. Senators Josh Hawley and Elizabeth Warren requested that the agency gather detailed information on data center energy usage and its impact on the power grid.

In a letter reviewed by TechCrunch, the senators urged the EIA “to establish a mandatory annual reporting requirement for data centers and other large loads.” They argued that “as electricity demand growth continues to accelerate after years of relative stagnation, the lack of reliable, standardized data on large load energy consumption poses significant risks to effective grid planning and oversight.” Wired was the first to report on this correspondence.

This letter is not the first attempt by lawmakers to impose new regulations on data centers. On Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced plans to introduce legislation that would pause new data center construction until Congress reaches an agreement on AI regulation.

Data center energy consumption has surged in recent years. For instance, Google’s data centers doubled their energy usage between 2020 and 2024. This trend is expected to persist, with planned new data centers nearly tripling the sector’s energy demand by 2035.

The EIA, a government agency responsible for collecting and analyzing energy system data, functions much like a Census bureau for the grid. Established in 1977 under the Department of Energy following the oil shocks of the early 1970s, it has spent decades gathering extensive information on U.S. energy use, including costs, generation sources, and efficiency programs.

While the EIA tracks energy usage across different sectors, it currently focuses on four broad categories: residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation.

Hawley and Warren are asking the EIA to collect more granular data on data centers, specifically distinguishing between energy consumption for AI computing tasks and general cloud services.

The senators have outlined specific data requirements, including hourly, annual, and peak energy loads, as well as the rates companies pay. They also seek information on grid upgrades necessitated by new large loads, how these upgrades are funded, and whether data center customers participate in demand response programs, where utilities compensate heavy users for reducing consumption during peak times.

The letter addresses EIA Administrator Tristan Abbey, who stated in December that the agency will be an “essential player” in collecting data on data center energy demand. Hawley and Warren have requested a response by April 9.

The process may already be underway, although the EIA has not publicly confirmed this. Any changes to EIA surveys must go through the Office of Management and Budget, which requires a public comment period.

“We get requests for analysis very often. We get requests for an actual new product less frequently,” Abbey said at a public event in December. “It takes probably about two years to launch a new survey from scratch. But there are authorities that exist where you can avoid the two-year process by conducting surveys of smaller scope, but potentially a sharper signal.”