Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is pushing for more regulations on data centers as part of a new package of artificial intelligence bills introduced in Congress yesterday (Tuesday).
The legislative agenda, titled “A Framework for America’s AI Future,” is Warner’s plan for the United States to develop AI responsibly. Virginia’s senior senator said the bills resulted from years of work examining AI’s impact on the economy, national security, competition and American workers.
“America doesn’t have to choose between leading in AI and putting commonsense rules of the road in place,” Warner said in a release. “In fact, our leadership depends on getting this right. We need policies that encourage innovation while protecting consumers, strengthening competition, preparing our workforce, and ensuring AI advances America’s national security, not undermines it.”
Warner’s Data Center Tax Accountability and Disclosure Act calls for requiring large AI data centers to publicly share information about their energy and water consumption, emissions, backup generation and other operational impacts. States would be required to provide data center reports to the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, where they would be released annually.
The bill also calls for data centers to meet “high efficiency and sustainability standards” to continue receiving federal tax benefits like bonus depreciation. It would tie bonus depreciation to data centers earning platinum or gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
The legislation was endorsed by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Sierra Club and the Virginia League of Conservation Voters.
Warner also proposed a bill to allocate revenue generated by the bonus depreciation limits for data centers. The proposed National Workforce Transition Fund would use the revenue to support worker retraining, individual workforce training accounts, employer retention and redeployment grants, tuition assistance for high-demand jobs, workforce data modernization, and pilot programs to help workers navigate technological disruptions.
The growth of AI has come hand-in-hand with the expansion of data centers, much to the ire of local residents concerned about noise, energy use and other environmental impacts. Virginia is the state with the most, with Ashburn in Loudoun County earning the nickname “Data Center Alley.”
Michael Town, executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, said Virginians and other Americans “are rightfully fed up with data centers.”
“In communities across America, these facilities are driving up energy costs, polluting our air, sucking up our water, and bringing a host of negative environmental impacts,” Town said. “This legislation from Senator Warner recognizes this reality, and responds by bringing needed transparency to this industry and holding data centers accountable to stronger environmental standards – efforts that will help protect communities and lead to a more sustainable industry.”
ARLnow has reached out to the Data Center Coalition for comment on Warner’s proposed data center bill.
Warner’s AI legislative agenda also includes creating a framework for trusted AI agents to use major online platforms under privacy and cybersecurity standards (Artificial Intelligence Access, Gatekeeper Exchange, and Nondiscriminatory Transfer Act), a plan to combat child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate images generated by AI (Safeguarding Against Fabricated Exploitation Through Artificial Intelligence Act), and a plan to create accelerated undergraduate to Ph.D. programs in AI and other top technology fields (Promoting High-skilled Doctoral Talent Act).
The senator also plans to reintroduce the Financial Artificial Intelligence Risk Reduction Act, to require financial regulators to address AI-generated content that could disrupt financial markets.
Warner’s proposal came as Virginia’s new two-year budget added a new data center electricity consumption tax, which as of July 1 charges a rate of $0.011 per kilowatt hour based on the electricity a data center uses each month. The budget deal did not end the sales and use tax exemption for data centers, which had been the main area of dispute between Virginia Senate and House of Delegates leaders.
Data centers and other large-scale energy users will also begin paying a new rate class on Dominion Energy electric bills starting on Jan. 1, 2027.
