SACRAMENTO – Recently posted on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s site, California is enacting new laws to increase transparency and prevent working families from shouldering the costs of data centers in their communities. The laws give communities more information about energy, water, workforce, and land use for proposed data centers so they can better weigh the economic costs and benefits of such projects.
Governor Gavin Newsom: While the Trump administration moves toward deregulation, communities are left to deal with the consequences — higher electricity demand, grid constraints, water use, and pollution. Today we are once again laying the groundwork for a stronger approach, because we know that we don’t have to sell out Californians or sacrifice our well-being to innovate and succeed. California has proven that time and time again.
With these laws, we are ensuring that Californians remain in the driver’s seat — and that those profiting from data centers aren’t doing so at our expense.
As the innovation economy continues to grow, data centers are being presented as a solution, but with little thought or oversight of what that means for nearby communities. This announcement helps communities take a stronger role in the decision-making process and protects working families from shouldering the cost as industry reaps massive profits.
California is implementing stronger reporting requirements, giving communities more information about the water, electricity, and land use of proposed data centers. With these new laws, California is helping to ensure that communities have more information they need to decide whether data centers are right for them, including:
⚡Electricity, by making data centers pay their fair share of grid update costs, while preventing cost shifts to low-income customers. The new laws will also ensure data centers comply with California energy procurement requirements, bring new clean energy supply onto the grid, and pay for any upgrade costs. This legislation will prevent data centers from shifting costs onto everyday ratepayers.
🚰Water, by requiring that proposed data centers provide information to local governments and water suppliers about water use, supply, efficiency and drought planning. Any upgrades needed to supply water would be paid for by the data center.
🏞️Land use, by making data centers ineligible for blanket environmental exemptions and instead requiring data centers to demonstrate that the project will not shift costs to ratepayers, but will meet state standards on energy, water, and fuel consumption before any judicial streamlining could be approved.
The Governor has signed the following bills:
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AB 1577 by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda). Data centers: reporting
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AB 2383 by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood). Electricity: data centers.
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AB 2469 by Assemblymember Diane Papan (D-San Mateo). Data centers: water use disclosures.
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AB 2619 by Assemblymember Diane Papan (D-San Mateo). Water resources: data center.
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SB 886 by Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) and Senator Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton). California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act.
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SB 887 by Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego). California Environmental Quality Act: environmental leadership development projects: data centers: geothermal power plant projects.
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SB 1168 by Senator Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton). Data centers: Rate structures.