Pauses New AI Data Center Construction
Official: Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act
This bill creates an open-ended moratorium on building new large-scale AI data centers and requires quarterly federal reporting on existing ones.
1. Halts new construction of AI data centers with peak power loads above 20 megawatts or any facility used for training large-scale AI models. 2. The moratorium has no fixed end date and only lifts after Congress passes laws covering federal AI product review, equitable distribution of AI economic gains, and community protections for electricity costs, climate, and labor. 3. Requires the Department of Energy to publish quarterly reports on each AI data center covering water use, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, wastewater, wages, jobs created, and subsidies received. 4. Gives the Secretary of Energy subpoena, interrogatory, and inspection authority to enforce the reporting requirements. 5. Restricts exporting AI computing hardware and large-scale AI training infrastructure to countries without comparable AI safety regulations.
Tech companies building or operating AI data centers, cloud providers, AI labs, utilities serving them, construction workers, and communities near proposed sites.