January 8, 2026
Mr. Menendez (for himself and Mr. Casar) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
To require data centers to generate electricity, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Preventing Rate Inflation in Consumer Energy Act
or the PRICE Act
.
Sec. 2. Requirement for data centers to generate electricity
(a) Requirement
Each data center located in the United States shall generate all of the electricity the data center consumes each year.
(b) Use of clean energy sources
(1) 75 percent
During the period beginning on January 1, 2035, and ending on the date described in paragraph (2), not less than 75 percent of the electricity generated by a data center for purposes of subsection (a) shall be from a clean energy source.
(2) 100 percent
Beginning on January 1, 2040, 100 percent of the electricity generated by a data center for purposes of subsection (a) shall be from a clean energy source.
(c) Enforcement
(1) Civil penalty
Any data center that violates any provision of this section shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $100,000 per day until the violation is rectified.
(2) Establishment of administrative process
Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall establish an administrative process for the issuance of civil penalties for violations of this section.
(d) Definitions
In this section:
(1) Clean energy source
The term clean energy source includes a solar, wind, battery, green hydrogen, hydropower, and geothermal source.
(2) Data center
The term data center means a facility that—
(A)
is described in section 453(a)(1) of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (42 U.S.C. 17112(a)(1)); and
(B)
consumes at least 50 megawatts each day.