A new bill has been proposed in the US Senate that would permit artificial intelligence (AI) data center firms to bypass federal electricity regulations by building their own energy infrastructure.
The DATA Act of 2026 was proposed by Senator Tom Cotton (Republican, Arkansas) and would amend the Federal Power Act.
“American dominance in AI and other crucial emerging industries should not come at the expense of Arkansans paying higher energy costs,” Cotton said in a statement. “My bill will ensure that America can continue to lead in these spaces by eliminating outdated regulations.”
If passed the bill would create a new utility category called “consumer-regulated electric utilities” (CREUs), with companies who build their own independent power infrastructure falling under this new designation. In order to qualify for CREU, the utilities would have to be completed disconnected from the main grid and built solely to serve new electric loads. Consequently, if the utility subsequently connects to the grid it would lose its exempt status.
Unless they specify Solar, Wind, or Hydrogen, it’s just going to be these assholes building their own coal generators FFS.
Big NOPE
Honestly, if they made it a requirement that it has to be 100% clean energy, this could actually be a net positive, but of course they won’t because it’s Trump’s admin and he’s got a boner for coal and oil.
I dunno, at least some of planned datacenters ARE doing that. For example an absolutely ENORMOUS Solar Farm is being built in Cheyenne, Wyoming for another Microsoft DC. For a previous MS DC a big ass wind farm was built. Meta is building a fuck you sized DC in Cheyenne and recently inked a deal with Terrapower for a natrium powered reactor.
I dislike having to defend these assholes but the Green Energy thing has been done, is being done, and they have definite plans to do more of it.
Saw something about the EPA rolling back air quality regulations too
Good times
For perspective, the one they’re proposing to build in southern NM has an estimated pollution output larger than the entire El Paso region. https://www.riograndesierraclub.org/project-jupiter/
Natural gas fuel cells were a pretty popular choice there for a while. Bloom energy has been marketing their shit towards datacenters for as long as I can remember, and as far as I know they use a similar mechanism to hydrogen fuel cells where you’re just stripping electrons off of the methane molecules.
Its still natural gas. Getting it out of the ground is an ecological disaster.