US Senate Proposes Fees on Data Centers Exceeding Emissions Targets

Draft legislation in the US Senate proposes to impose fees on data centers serving blockchain networks and artificial intelligence models if they exceed federal emissions targets. The bill, led by Senate Democrats, aims to address the environmental impacts of rising energy demand and protect households from higher energy bills.

The Clean Cloud Act mandates that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set an emissions performance standard for data centers and crypto mining facilities with over 100 KW of installed IT nameplate power. The standard would be based on regional grid emissions intensities, with an 11% annual reduction target. The legislation also includes penalties for emissions exceeding the set standard, starting at $20 per ton of CO2e, with the penalty increasing annually by inflation plus an additional $10.

According to a minority blog post on the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works website, the surging power demand from cryptominers and data centers is outpacing the growth of carbon-free electricity. Data centers’ electricity usage is projected to account for up to 12% of the US total power demand by 2028.

Matthew Sigel, head of research at VanEck, noted that the proposed legislation effectively seeks to single out Bitcoin miners and similar operations for energy consumption. This strategy, he argues, is a "Losing ‘Blame the Server Racks’ Strategy."

The draft law comes as Bitcoin miners, including Galaxy, CoreScientific, and Terawulf, increasingly pivot toward supplying high-performance computing (HPC) power for AI models. Bitcoin miners have struggled in 2025 as declining cryptocurrency prices weigh on business models already impacted by the Bitcoin network’s most recent halving. Miners are diversifying into AI data-center hosting as a way to expand revenue and repurpose existing infrastructure for high-performance computing.

Miners’ incomes began to stabilize in the first quarter of 2025. However, the recovery could be cut short if ongoing trade wars disrupt miners’ business models. Several cryptocurrency executives have expressed concerns that aggressive tariffs and retaliatory trade policies could create obstacles for node operators, validators, and other core participants in blockchain networks.

In moments of global uncertainty, the infrastructure supporting crypto, not just the assets themselves, can become collateral damage. The proposed legislation could clash with the US’s policy under President Donald Trump, who repealed a 2023 executive order by Joe Biden setting AI safety standards. Trump has previously declared his intention to make the US the “world capital” of AI and cryptocurrency.