How Governments Can Clean Up the Cloud

By Dr. Michael Shank and US Congressman Steve Cohen

For years, we’ve known that the “cloud”—that virtual buzzword and digital space that holds all our phone, computer and streaming data—is environmentally dirty. If this cloud were a country, it’d be one of the top global greenhouse gas emitters and water users. And yet the cloud’s current growth trajectory, and reliance on limited resources, isn’t sustainable.

The cloud’s emissions footprint, already more than aviation and shipping, is growing fast. In the U.S., it’s already nearing 5 percent of our country’s total energy usage, and expected to triple in power demand by 2028. It’s also quickly consuming local water supplies, as roughly 5 million gallons of water are needed daily for a large data center.

With the major tech companies—Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Apple, Google—investing over $1 trillion into data center growth in the U.S., those emissions and water footprints are bound to grow exponentially if we’re not supporting them with less energy-and-water intensive alternatives. Thankfully, clean power can provide that.

Getting on top of this before communities are priced out of their homes due to rising energy burden is essential. A recent analysis by Morgan Stanley illustrates how data centers are driving up consumer electricity bills. Memphis, as one of many examples, is one of the most energy-burdened cities in America where families spend a larger share of their income on utilities than almost anywhere in the country. And if these high-demand industries increase pressure on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s system, it could easily put more Memphians on the streets. Memphis is not alone. Many American cities and counties are facing similar problems. Some are pushing back and even shutting down data center construction.

These pressing issues are why Congress must get more involved now. Local communities need support before emissions worsen and energy demands further drive up prices and dry out water resources. And tech companies need support, too, in the clean-up of America’s collective cloud. A few companies are already co-locating data centers with onsite renewable energy and battery storage, but that needs to be scaled sooner than later.

That’s why members of the House and Senate have introduced the Clean Cloud Act, with the aim of establishing emissions standards for electricity usage at crypto-mining and data centers. These high-demand energy users, which are straining grids all across America, need to be powered responsibly, supported by new zero-carbon energy and not reliant on local communities to foot the bill. That’s all possible. It just needs to be prioritized and supported nationally. Cue this legislation.

The bill—which supports energy affordability programs for American consumers, incentivizes new clean power development, and invests in zero-carbon electricity and battery storage—has the potential to bring with it a much-needed bipartisan consensus in Congress.

Why? Because no community across this country is going to be untouched by cryptomining and data center impacts. And as other media outlets have reported, local opposition to these high-energy users is already skyrocketing. Data center resistance is rising and it’s happening across Republican and Democratic communities. No political party will avoid the energy demand of cryptomining and data centers. That means that a bipartisan voting block will want Washington to clean up the cloud before their communities are further impacted.

Since Congress is playing catch-up on the clean-up, this bill establishes an emissions intensity baseline for these cryptomining and data centers, as none currently exists. And it requires an annual survey of these high-energy users, one that’s published publicly, so that communities across the country will have more transparency about the impacts they’re facing and more power in negotiating their future resource demands.

To be clear, all of this is no-brainer stuff and has bipartisan support, as communities across this country want more transparency and control over local planning, impacts and resources. As this data revolution transforms every aspect of our technology, economy, communications and more, let’s make sure it doesn’t irreparably harm communities all across America.

Americans want their devices to have ample data, and they also want clean air, affordable energy bills and an available water supply. It’s possible to have all of this with careful planning and cleaner energy. It’s past time we clean up the cloud.

Dr. Michael Shank is adjunct professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. Representative Steve Cohen represents Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District and introduced the Clean Cloud Act in the House of Representatives, a companion to a Senate bill. This article first ran in Newsweek.