H.R. 9825 — Data Center Water and Energy Transparency Act of 2026

This section defines terms used throughout the Act, including the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, data center and data center operator, energy use and water use by data centers, power usage effectiveness and water usage effectiveness under specified International Organization for Standardization standards, the Secretaries of Energy and Agriculture, State, and unit of local government.

This section requires operators of data centers with peak demand of at least 25 megawatts to submit annual reports to states (or to the Administrator and Secretaries if a state lacks a collection program) detailing monthly on-site energy and water use, sources, power and water usage effectiveness, and five-year projections with efficiency proposals. It imposes parallel pre-construction reporting for new or expanded data centers meeting the same threshold, authorizes state fees, and directs states to forward anonymized aggregated data for an annual public federal report on national and regional energy, water, rate, and environmental impacts.

This section requires the Administrator and the Secretaries to jointly assess fees on data center operators that submit required reports, in amounts necessary to carry out the Act, and permits use of collected amounts without further appropriation to implement those reporting provisions.