This article was originally published by NJ State House News Service via the NJ News Commons.
Lawmakers took another step Thursday toward forcing New Jersey’s proliferating data centers to submit semi-annual reports on the electric and water use.
The measure, A4096, was unanimously approved by the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee, and would mandate reporting to the state Board of Public Utilities. An identical measure was passed 34-2 by the Senate in March.
“Transparency will help state agencies better understand the impacts of data,” Kathryn Fisher, the campaign manager at the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, testified.
There are more than 80 operational or planned data centers have been built in New Jersey to power the growing AI industry within the state, according to South Jersey Climate News.
This legislation is part of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s plan to increase supervision and regulation over data centers. Her plan announced May 27 also includes establishing rules to make data centers contribute to building utility grid infrastructure, addressing local environmental concerns and creating good-paying jobs.
Fisher said Thursday one data center uses the same energy as 80,000 homes over the same time period. In addition, 5 million gallons of water are used by one large data center in one single day, she said, which is especially problematic in light of recent droughts.
“No one has any idea of how much water this enormous facility is actually going to consume,” Anjuli Ramos-Busot, chapter director of the New Jersey Sierra Club said. “Not the DEP [Department of Environmental Protection], the BPU [Board of Public Utilities], not the members of the communities. We don’t even know if the town council actually knows this information.”
Ramos-Busot was specifically concerned with the impact that data centers have on farming communities. In Vineland, a massive DataOne data center is currently under construction, and she emphasized how the facility has provided no information about its current and future water and energy usages.
Just last month, the Millville Board of Commissioners rejected potentially New Jersey’s largest data center project. Since then, all data center projects proposed in Millville have been banned, due to the potential fears surrounding the affordability of energy.
The bill passed the Assembly committee Thursday on a 9-0 vote. Assemblyman Al Barlos, a Republican from Cedar Grove, was absent.
