First signs of federal data center reporting mandates appear in US

The past year (2022) has seen regulators in many countries develop or mandate requirements to report data centers’ operating information and environmental performance metrics. The first of these, the European Commission's (EC's) Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) recast is currently under review by the European Parliament and is expected to become law in 2023. This directive will mandate three levels of information reporting, the application and publication of energy performance improvement and efficiency metrics, and conformity with certain energy efficiency requirements (see EU's EED recast set to create reporting challenges).

Similar legislative and regulatory initiatives are now appearing in the US with the White House Office of Technology and Science Policy’s (OTSP’s) Climate and energy implications of crypto-assets in the US report, published in September 2022. Concurrently with this, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is drafting complimentary legislation that addresses both crypto and conventional data centers and sets the stage for the introduction of similar regulation to the EED over the next three to five years.