Data centers must provide their own power and give back to the grid in newly proposed bill
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming a political and environmental issue as it continues to be pushed as a necessary technology by private and government-backed companies. The Data Centers that power the tech are being rapidly constructed across the United States, using massive amounts of electricity and water and passing the cost of that increased usage onto customers in the areas surrounding the mega-structures.
U.S. Senator Adam Schiff has proposed legislation that will require energy-intensive structures like data centers to “bring their own power” and agree to be flexible in their energy demands, according to a press-release by the California Democratic Senator.
The Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) the authority to require that data centers be responsible for 100% of grid network updates that would be needed to deliver power to the facility. Data centers would also be responsible for reducing their demand during peak energy consumption periods and transferring power back into the grid, which Sen. Schiff says would reduce energy costs for consumers. The legislation would also block data centers from tapping into existing power plants that are already serving a population.
Power outages and rising energy costs aren’t anything new to residents of the Morongo Basin. Summer months can bring rolling blackouts due to an increase in energy demand from air conditioning along with an energy grid that Southern California Edison says needs upgrades and improvements. The utility is also facing lawsuits surrounding wildfires in Southern California, and has paid out over $100 million in claims from the Eaton Fire that devastated Los Angeles in 2025. The wildfire that killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,000 buildings was determined to be caused by high-tension power lines operated by Southern California Edison.
Partially as a result of these lawsuits, SCE Customers have already received a 13% rate hike in October of 2025.
Senator Adam Schiff brought up energy affordability when he came through Joshua Tree last month during a visit to the Joshua Basin Water District to discuss chromium treatment. The Senator said that while the supply of affordable housing remains an issue in rural areas like the hi-desert, providing affordable resources to those homes and residents isn’t getting any easier.
“With these data centers being built, the demand for energy is going up. And unless we’re bringing a lot of new power online, then people’s utility bills are going to go up… and I want to make sure people aren’t suffering because there are data centers being built,” the Senator said in an interview with Z107.7 News.
“But also, we just need to bring new power online to bring down the cost of energy. So with each higher cost, there are answers to how we can bring down costs. But we need a Congress, we need a President that’s focused on that, and right now, the President isn’t focused on it. This had been at the heart of his campaign pledges, but he seems to be spending more time with his ballroom than he is trying to bring down the cost of living for the American people.”
The proposed legislation doesn’t put limits on the building of data centers, something that has become a lightning rod in the communities where they are proposed. A 240-acre data center has been proposed near the city of Coachella in Riverside County, and a research team from UC Riverside says that data centers across the nation could collectively require up to 1,451 billion gallons of water per day through 2030.
The bill has been introduced but has yet to go through the Senate and the House. You can track the progress of the legislation here.