A new bill has been proposed in the US Senate that would permit artificial intelligence (AI) data center firms to bypass federal electricity regulations by building their own energy infrastructure.
The DATA Act of 2026 was proposed by Senator Tom Cotton (Republican, Arkansas) and would amend the Federal Power Act.
“American dominance in AI and other crucial emerging industries should not come at the expense of Arkansans paying higher energy costs,” Cotton said in a statement. “My bill will ensure that America can continue to lead in these spaces by eliminating outdated regulations.”
If passed the bill would create a new utility category called “consumer-regulated electric utilities” (CREUs), with companies who build their own independent power infrastructure falling under this new designation. In order to qualify for CREU, the utilities would have to be completed disconnected from the main grid and built solely to serve new electric loads. Consequently, if the utility subsequently connects to the grid it would lose its exempt status.
Natural gas fuel cells were a pretty popular choice there for a while. Bloom energy has been marketing their shit towards datacenters for as long as I can remember, and as far as I know they use a similar mechanism to hydrogen fuel cells where you’re just stripping electrons off of the methane molecules.
Its still natural gas. Getting it out of the ground is an ecological disaster.
It’s also a byproduct of petroleum refinement and an even worse greenhouse gas than CO2, so breaking it down into CO2 and water is better than just releasing it. Might as well make some lemonade.