Data Center Bills Tracker: Federal and State Legislation

Name: Data Center Bills Tracker: Federal and State Legislation
Creator: Megawatt Index Editorial Team
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

“Data center bill” now mostly means legislation: who pays for the power plants and power lines new data centers need, how they connect to the grid, and what they must disclose about energy and water. This tracker follows 60 bills, 20 in Congress and 40 in 20 states; 12 have become law. The most recent action was on October 15, 2026 (S. 5689).

Megawatt Index Editorial Team

Updated November 10, 2026Tracker60 bills

Download CSVAbout this data

Bills tracked: 60; 20 federal, 40 state
States: 20; with at least one bill
Became law: 12
Still pending: 31; in committee or passed one chamber

Data center bills that became law

Enacted data center bills, newest first
#	Where	Bill	What it does	Enacted
1	California	SB 1168	Requires the Public Utilities Commission to assess rate structures to ensure data centers pay a reasonable share of transmission, distribution, load growth and procurement costs, and to ease cost pressure on residential ratepayers.	2026-09-21
2	California	AB 2469	Bars cities and counties from approving permits for new data centers, or expansions that raise peak water use, unless the applicant provides required information including a water scarcity plan and water supply assessment and pays the full cost of needed water infrastructure.	2026-09-21
3	South Carolina	H. 5122	Creates a sales tax exemption and refund process for certain equipment bought by internet access and communications service providers and bars data centers from claiming the exemption or refunds.	2026-05-19
4	Virginia	HB 496	Requires registered water users that supply water offsite to report the monthly volumes of potable and reclaimed water delivered to data centers holding a state air permit, separately from other customer categories, starting January 1, 2027.	2026-04-13
5	Mississippi	SB 3410	Authorizes the City of Brandon and the West Rankin Utility Authority to contract with a data center developer or operator for water and wastewater infrastructure the developer reimburses, including delivery of reclaimed water for cooling, for terms of up to 30 years.	2026-04-08
6	Maryland	SB 116	Requires the Department of the Environment, the Maryland Energy Administration and the University of Maryland School of Business to analyze the likely environmental, energy and economic impacts of data center development in Maryland, with a final report due September 1, 2026.	2025-12-16
7	California	SB 57	Authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to assess whether electrical corporation costs tied to new data center loads shift costs to other customers, with any assessment sent to the Legislature and posted online by January 1, 2027.	2025-10-11
8	New Jersey	A5466	Requires the Board of Public Utilities to study the effects of data centers on electricity costs.	2025-07-08
9	Oregon	HB 3546	Directs the Public Utility Commission to create a class of service for large energy use facilities whose tariffs allocate the costs of serving them to those facilities, requires electric companies to serve them under contracts, and requires reports every even-numbered year on large-load trends.	2025-07-07
10	Texas	SB 6	Addresses planning for, interconnection and operation of, and the costs of providing service to certain large electrical loads, and power generation by water supply or sewer service corporations.	2025-06-20
11	Minnesota	HF 16	Modifies environmental and energy regulatory requirements for data centers, authorizes a clean energy and capacity tariff, modifies sales and use tax exemptions and imposes a fee.	2025-06-14
12	Indiana	HB 1007	Creates expedited Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission procedures for utilities to add generation for load growth above a threshold and for projects serving large load customers, and provides a tax credit for manufacturing small modular nuclear reactors in Indiana.	2025-05-06

Every tracked bill

TopicSearch this table

Showing 60 of 60

Federal and state data center bills

Congress	S. 5689	A bill to prohibit Federal and State incentives for the development or commercial operations of data centers.	In committee	2026-10-15	Prohibits federal and state incentives for the development or commercial operation of data centers.
Congress	H.R. 10809	Make Data Centers Pay Act	In committee	2026-10-13	Amends the Federal Power Act to bar allocating the incremental cost of serving data center and high-density computing loads of 20 megawatts or more to any other customers.
Congress	H.R. 9340	Ratepayer Protection Act	Passed one chamber	2026-09-30	Requires state utility regulators and nonregulated utilities to consider a federal standard under which data centers and similar large-load customers of 100 megawatts or more pay the full incremental cost of the generation, transmission and distribution upgrades needed to serve them, including costs if they end service early.
California	SB 1168	Data centers: rate structures.	Enacted	2026-09-21	Requires the Public Utilities Commission to assess rate structures to ensure data centers pay a reasonable share of transmission, distribution, load growth and procurement costs, and to ease cost pressure on residential ratepayers.
California	AB 2469	Data centers: water use disclosures.	Enacted	2026-09-21	Bars cities and counties from approving permits for new data centers, or expansions that raise peak water use, unless the applicant provides required information including a water scarcity plan and water supply assessment and pays the full cost of needed water infrastructure.
Congress	H.R. 10448	Reverse Big Ugly Tax Breaks for Data Centers Act	In committee	2026-09-16	Amends the Internal Revenue Code to make qualified data center property ineligible for bonus depreciation.
Congress	S. 5418	No Tax Breaks for Data Centers Act	In committee	2026-09-16	Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude data centers from the definition of qualified opportunity zone businesses.
Congress	H.R. 10322	Data Center Fair Share Act	In committee	2026-09-08	Establishes federal standards under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act for recovering the full incremental cost of upgrades serving large-load customers, and withholds federal highway funds from states that do not implement them.
Congress	H.R. 10139	Ratepayer Bill of Rights Act of 2026	In committee	2026-08-24	Requires public disclosure of electricity and water use, infrastructure costs, rate impacts, public financial assistance and related commitments for large data centers.
Congress	S. 5199	GRID Savings Act of 2026	In committee	2026-07-30	Amends the Federal Power Act to clarify Federal Energy Regulatory Commission jurisdiction over interconnecting large loads to the transmission system and to set standards and procedures for those interconnections.
Congress	H.R. 6529	Protecting Families from AI Data Center Energy Costs Act	In committee	2026-07-21	Requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to hold a technical conference on protecting residential ratepayers from increased costs associated with large loads such as AI data centers.
Congress	S. 5054	Data Center Tax Accountability and Disclosure Act of 2026	In committee	2026-07-21	Exempts AI data centers from bonus depreciation and requires data center operators to submit information on their electricity and water use.
Congress	H.R. 9777	Protecting Ratepayers Act	In committee	2026-07-20	Bars new and existing data centers of 5 megawatts or more from operating unless they draw all power and water from sources separate from the electric grid and public water systems, and gives the March 9, 2026 Ratepayer Protection Pledge proclamation the force of law.
Congress	S. 5028	Ratepayer Protection Act	In committee	2026-07-16	Senate version of the Ratepayer Protection Act, requiring states and nonregulated utilities to consider a standard that makes large-load customers such as data centers pay the full incremental cost of grid upgrades built to serve them.
Congress	H.R. 9372	Data Infrastructure Energy Measurement and Standards Act	In committee	2026-06-25	Directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop best practices and standards for measuring data center workloads and energy and water use, and to study data needs for energy and water demand forecasting.
Michigan	HB 6135	Public utilities: rates; large load commercial rates for data centers; establish.	In committee	2026-06-25	Would establish large load commercial electric rates for data centers.
Congress	H.R. 9419	Power and Water for Families Act of 2026	In committee	2026-06-24	Creates federal standards for states to consider on large-load customers paying incremental infrastructure costs and adding new generation, and adds federal tax credits for qualifying additive generation and water reuse projects.
Congress	S. 4806	POWER Up Act	In committee	2026-06-17	Clarifies that interconnecting large load facilities directly to interstate transmission facilities falls within the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Ohio	HB 646	Create the Data Center Study Commission	Passed one chamber	2026-06-10	As passed by the House, creates a temporary Data Center Study Commission to examine data center issues and report findings and recommendations within six months; a Senate committee substitute expanded the bill to other sections regarding data centers.
North Carolina	S 730	Ratepayer Protection Act.	Passed one chamber	2026-06-08	As rewritten by the House, sets requirements for siting and operating data centers, including site assessments before local approval, and makes various changes to state energy and utility policy.
New York	S6394	New York state sustainable data centers act	In committee	2026-05-30	Would regulate energy consumption by data centers, require annual disclosure reporting and prohibit incentives in fossil fuel power purchase agreements with utilities.
Illinois	SB 4016	HYPERSCALE DATA CENTERS	In committee	2026-05-22	Would set environmental, water and energy rules for hyperscale data centers, including cumulative impact assessments, community benefits agreements, water impact permits and usage reporting, annual energy and water reporting to the Illinois Commerce Commission, and annual fees based on peak demand.
Illinois	SB 2181	DATA CENTER REPORTING	In committee	2026-05-22	Would create the Illinois Data Center Energy and Water Reporting Act, requiring data centers to report annual energy and water use to the Illinois Power Agency, and direct the Agency to study the impact of data centers on ratepayers.
South Carolina	H. 5122	Internet and Communications Service Providers Equipment	Enacted	2026-05-19	Creates a sales tax exemption and refund process for certain equipment bought by internet access and communications service providers and bars data centers from claiming the exemption or refunds.
Congress	S. 4559	Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act of 2026	In committee	2026-05-18	Amends the Federal Power Act to require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue a final rule on the interconnection of large load facilities to the transmission system.
North Carolina	S 1026	Power Bill Protection/Large Load Tariff.	In committee	2026-05-05	Would amend the Public Utilities Act to change how North Carolina integrates large-load electricity customers, defined as nonresidential customers with peak demand of 50 megawatts or more.
Louisiana	HB 1206	Provides relative to permitting and reporting of water usage at data centers	Died at session end	2026-04-28	Would have set permitting and reporting requirements for water use at data centers.
Virginia	HB 496	Certain data from water users; water use consumption for domestic, etc., purposes, data centers.	Enacted	2026-04-13	Requires registered water users that supply water offsite to report the monthly volumes of potable and reclaimed water delivered to data centers holding a state air permit, separately from other customer categories, starting January 1, 2027.
Congress	H.R. 8241	Power for the People Act of 2026	In committee	2026-04-09	Promotes the creation of data center load queues and data center specific rate classes to limit the impact of data centers on other electricity consumers.
Mississippi	SB 3410	City of Brandon and West Rankin Utility Authority; authorize to enter agreements w/data center for water & wastewater infrastructure.	Enacted	2026-04-08	Authorizes the City of Brandon and the West Rankin Utility Authority to contract with a data center developer or operator for water and wastewater infrastructure the developer reimburses, including delivery of reclaimed water for cooling, for terms of up to 30 years.
Pennsylvania	HB 1834	An Act providing for the regulation of commercial data centers; imposing duties on the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the Department of Human Services and the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority; ... (shortened)	Passed one chamber	2026-03-31	Sets rules for commercial data centers, including clean firm energy requirements, filing and Public Utility Commission review of contracts, disclosure, backup generation and curtailment standards, and expedited interconnection for data centers that bring new clean firm energy, and creates related energy assistance and energy independence accounts.
Congress	S. 4213	Data Center Water and Energy Transparency Act of 2026	In committee	2026-03-25	Requires data center operators to report their energy and water use to states or to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Departments of Energy and Agriculture.
Ohio	SB 381	Require PUCO approval to connect data centers to electrical grid	In committee	2026-03-25	Would require Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approval of agreements to interconnect data centers to the electric grid.
Wisconsin	AB 722	Relating to: large energy customer fees; electric utility very large customer class; a renewable resource tariff; building requirements for data centers; water usage by large customers; required pay rate on large-scale data center projects; and granting rule-making authority.	Died at session end	2026-03-23	Would have created fees on large energy customers, a very large customer class for electric utilities, a renewable resource tariff, building requirements for data centers, water use rules for large customers and pay rules for large data center projects.
Wisconsin	AB 245	Relating to: modifying the sales and use tax exemption for qualified data centers.	Died at session end	2026-03-23	Would have modified Wisconsin's sales and use tax exemption for qualified data centers, including barring certification of buildings used for cryptocurrency.
Virginia	HB 897	Retail Sales and Use Tax; exemption for data centers, delayed effective date.	Failed	2026-03-03	Would have conditioned eligibility for Virginia's existing data center sales and use tax exemption on limits to carbon-emitting onsite and backup generation, clean energy procurement and energy efficiency investments, phased in from July 1, 2027.
Georgia	SB 34	Public Service Commission; costs incurred by an electric utility as a result of providing electric services to commercial data centers from being included in any rates; prohibit	Died at session end	2026-02-25	Would have barred electric utilities from including the costs of serving commercial data centers in rates unless those rates recover the costs solely or substantially from the data centers.
Georgia	HB 1323	Electrical service; require new data centers to operate as hybrid power data centers	Died at session end	2026-02-19	Would have required new data centers to operate as hybrid power data centers certified by the Public Service Commission.
Maryland	HB 1082	Large Load Customers - Data Centers and Rate Schedule Requirements	Died at session end	2026-02-12	Would have applied existing rate schedule requirements for large load customers to certain data centers and moved the deadline for electric companies to file those rate schedules from September 1, 2026, to January 1, 2027.
Congress	S. 3852	GRID Act	In committee	2026-02-11	Requires data centers of 20 megawatts or more to run on power separate from the electric grid, with a 10 year path for existing grid-connected data centers to keep operating by obtaining a Department of Energy certificate showing no effect on ratepayers' rates.
Arizona	HB 2949	energy costs; large data centers	Died at session end	2026-02-05	Would have required public power entities and the Corporation Commission to make data centers with peak demand of at least 100 megawatts pay the energy costs related to their operation, without passing those costs to other customers.
Maryland	HB 560	Sales and Use Tax and Property Tax - Exemptions for Data Centers - Repeal	Died at session end	2026-01-28	Would have repealed Maryland's sales and use tax exemption for equipment used at qualified data centers and local authority to reduce or eliminate property tax assessments on that equipment.
Arizona	SB 1380	large load customers; energy costs	Died at session end	2026-01-27	Would have required public power entities and the Corporation Commission to make customers using at least 50 megawatts, including data centers, pay the energy costs that their demand causes, and barred passing those costs to other customers.
California	AB 93	Water resources: data centers.	Vetoed	2026-01-22	Would have required data center owners or operators to give their water supplier an estimate of expected water use before seeking a local business license and annual water use reports at renewal, and let the Department of Water Resources set tiered efficiency standards for data centers.
New Jersey	A5462	Requires electric public utilities to develop and apply special rules for large load customers to protect non-large load customers from increased costs.	Vetoed	2026-01-20	Would have required electric public utilities to develop and apply special rules for large load customers to protect other customers from increased costs.
Congress	H.R. 7066	SHIELD Act	In committee	2026-01-14	Amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to treat facilities with peak demand above 75 megawatts as a separate class of electric consumers that must fully pay for grid upgrades built to serve them, and to prioritize service requests that use load flexibility and onsite or procured zero-emission power.
South Carolina	S. 724	Commercial Data Center Water Usage Report	In committee	2026-01-13	Would require commercial data centers that use three million gallons of water a month to report their water use annually to the Department of Environmental Services, with penalties.
Indiana	SB 257	Electricity rate increases due to data centers.	Died at session end	2026-01-08	Would have barred the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission from approving electric rate increases related solely to the cost of serving data centers or other high-demand facilities with fewer than 50 full-time employees.
Michigan	HB 5396	Sales tax: exemptions; data center exemption; eliminate.	In committee	2025-12-17	Would eliminate Michigan's sales tax exemption for data centers.
Maryland	SB 116	Data Center Impact Analysis and Report	Enacted	2025-12-16	Requires the Department of the Environment, the Maryland Energy Administration and the University of Maryland School of Business to analyze the likely environmental, energy and economic impacts of data center development in Maryland, with a final report due September 1, 2026.
New Jersey	S4293	Requires owner or operator of data center to submit water and energy usage report to BPU.	Vetoed	2025-10-20	Would have required data center owners or operators to submit water and energy usage reports to the Board of Public Utilities.
California	SB 57	Electrical corporations: data centers: report.	Enacted	2025-10-11	Authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to assess whether electrical corporation costs tied to new data center loads shift costs to other customers, with any assessment sent to the Legislature and posted online by January 1, 2027.
New Jersey	A5466	Requires BPU to study effects of data centers on electricity costs.	Enacted	2025-07-08	Requires the Board of Public Utilities to study the effects of data centers on electricity costs.
Oregon	HB 3546	Relating to large energy use facilities; and declaring an emergency.	Enacted	2025-07-07	Directs the Public Utility Commission to create a class of service for large energy use facilities whose tariffs allocate the costs of serving them to those facilities, requires electric companies to serve them under contracts, and requires reports every even-numbered year on large-load trends.
Texas	SB 6	Relating to the planning for, interconnection and operation of, and costs related to providing service for certain electrical loads and to the generation of electric power by a water supply or sewer service corporation.	Enacted	2025-06-20	Addresses planning for, interconnection and operation of, and the costs of providing service to certain large electrical loads, and power generation by water supply or sewer service corporations.
Minnesota	HF 16	Data center regulatory bill.	Enacted	2025-06-14	Modifies environmental and energy regulatory requirements for data centers, authorizes a clean energy and capacity tariff, modifies sales and use tax exemptions and imposes a fee.
Indiana	HB 1007	Energy generation resources.	Enacted	2025-05-06	Creates expedited Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission procedures for utilities to add generation for load growth above a threshold and for projects serving large load customers, and provides a tax credit for manufacturing small modular nuclear reactors in Indiana.
Virginia	HB 1601	Siting of data centers; site assessment; high energy use facility.	Vetoed	2025-05-02	Requires a locality, before approving a rezoning or permit for a new high energy use facility such as a data center, to require a site assessment of its sound profile on homes and schools within 500 feet, and lets the locality require assessment of effects on water, agricultural, park, historic and forest resources.
Mississippi	HB 1239	Data center enterprises; revise certain definitions and other provisions relating to tax exemptions.	Failed	2025-03-29	Would have revised definitions, application requirements and noncompliance rules for Mississippi's sales, use and franchise tax exemptions for data center enterprises, including a 60-day period to cure noncompliance before losing exempt status.
Virginia	SB 960	Electric utilities; data center cost allocation.	Failed	2025-02-22	Directs the State Corporation Commission to determine whether current cost allocation makes customers that are not data centers unreasonably subsidize data center customers and, if so, to adopt rules to eliminate or minimize those subsidies.

Coverage: Federal: 119th Congress (2025-2026) bills on data center electricity costs, large-load tariffs, interconnection, water, disclosure and tax incentives, found by scanning every House and Senate bill in the govinfo.gov Bill Status bulk data. States: 2025 and 2026 sessions in AZ, CA, GA, IL, IN, LA, MD, MI, MN, MS, NC, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, SC, TX, VA, WI, found with each legislature's own search, subject index or data files. A selection, not an exhaustive list: enacted laws first, then notable failed, vetoed and pending bills, capped at 60 rows.
Sources: govinfo.gov bill status data, state legislature websites
Last updated: November 10, 2026, 60 bills

How this was built

Each row is checked against the official record: the Government Publishing Office's bill status data for Congress, and each state legislature's own website or data files for state bills. Status and the latest action come from that page; the one-sentence summary describes what the bill would do, in neutral terms. Every week an automated check reloads each bill's official page and updates its status when the page changes.

For the utility rules that already govern large loads, see the large-load tariff tracker; for county and city actions, the moratorium tracker.

Limits of this data

Not every bill that mentions data centers is here. We track bills whose main subject is data center power, costs, grid connection, water, disclosure or tax incentives.
Most rows are rechecked automatically each week; a few legislature sites block automated checks and are rechecked by hand, so their status can lag. The bill link always shows the live record.
Summaries describe the bill as introduced or last amended; amendments can change what a bill does.
Known gaps: Selection, not a census: several hundred data center bills were found across these states; rows were chosen to cover enacted, vetoed, failed and pending examples per state within a 60-row cap. Found but omitted rows are listed in docs/research/r2-bills.md. Texas: only SB 6 (2025) verified; other 89th Legislature data center bills were not searched (TLO keyword search not scripted). Pennsylvania: only HB 1834 verified; palegis.us has no simple keyword search URL, so Senate bills were not reviewed.

Sources

Industrial and Commercial Electricity Rates by State
Industrial and commercial electricity rates for all 50 states and DC from EIA's latest monthly data: cheapest and priciest states, yearly change, CSV.
Data Center Large-Load Tariff Tracker
Utility rules for data centers and other very large loads by state: minimum demand, contract term, exit fees, collateral, status and the docket.
Behind-the-Meter Power for Data Centers: Project Table
What behind-the-meter power means for data centers, and a sourced table of announced on-site gas, fuel cell, nuclear and solar projects.
Data Center PUE by Operator and Campus: Published Benchmarks
Published PUE and WUE for Google, AWS, Microsoft, Meta, Digital Realty and more, by fleet and campus, with the source and period of each. Calculator, CSV.

Data center bills that became law

Every tracked bill

How this was built

Limits of this data

Sources

Related datasets and tools