Senator Markey Releases Discussion Draft of Legislation to Create a National Framework to Address Data Center Harm

Discussion Draft Text (PDF)

Washington (July 13, 2026) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and co-chair of the Senate Environmental Justice Caucus, today released a discussion draft of legislation that would create a national framework to prevent increased energy costs, pollution, and adverse health harms related to the rapid buildout of data centers and associated fossil fuel infrastructure.

"Communities are organizing and demanding action to protect their air, water, energy bills, and quality of life from the tsunami of data centers around the country," said Senator Markey. "For an issue as fast-moving and important to American families - the surging proliferation of data centers - we need a national framework that can proactively tackle all of these issues together. I will be working with communities, workers, and other stakeholders to learn from state and local level measures, and collaborate on this comprehensive platform that prioritizes protection, builds community capacity and resilience, and takes action against rising pollution and rising energy bills due to data centers."

The Protecting Communities from Data Center Impacts Act would:

• Require data centers to receive a certificate from the federal government prior to permitting and construction that affirms the data center will not harm the public interest and will meet minimum standards for energy, environmental, and economic impacts
• Provide grants to build community capacity and support technical assistance to monitor and mitigate air, water, noise, and other environmental and public health impacts from data centers
• Require data centers pay for necessary grid infrastructure and enter into agreements to reduce their energy demand during times of grid stress
• Require data centers fund renewable energy and storage to meet their capacity needs, rather than use on-site diesel
• Require high labor standards for construction

Senator Markey is an outspoken critic of the Trump administration's "race to the bottom" regulatory approach for AI data centers and a leader in advocating for stronger monitoring and mitigation of environmental and health impacts associated with data center buildout.

• Last week, Senator Markey released his AI Accountability Agenda: Taking Power Back from Big Tech, a comprehensive agenda for responding to the risks posed by AI that lays out specific policy proposals to protect communities from the immediate harms of AI.
• In June, Senator Markey wrote to EPA Administrator Zeldin to demand the withdrawal of a proposed rule that undermines Clean Air Act permitting standards to facilitate the buildout of data centers and associated fossil fuel infrastructure.
• Senator Markey previously reintroduced his Artificial Intelligence (AI) Environmental Impacts Act, legislation that would require data center operators to report the full range of their facilities' environmental impacts.
• In November 2025, Senator Markey wrote to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) urging the agency to ensure that increased and projected energy demand from data centers does not result in unjust or unreasonable rate hikes for American households.
• In September 2025, Senator Markey wrote to the EPA in opposition to the agency's initial announcement of plans to roll back the NSR program for data center buildout.
• In July 2025, Senator Markey hosted a roundtable discussion titled The Data Center Next Door: Hidden Costs and Harms of Artificial Intelligence and Cryptomining to highlight the adverse environmental, health, climate, and energy cost impacts of data center proliferation in communities across the United States, and to condemn the deregulatory actions set forth in President Trump's AI Action Plan. On the day of the roundtable, Senator Markey also released a storybook to spotlight the experiences of American families living with data centers in their backyard.

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