On Wednesday morning, lawmakers held a special meeting to discuss data centers at the Nevada Legislature.
During the meeting, they covered a plethora of data center-related topics, including policy trends, water and power needs, infrastructure impacts, grid regulation, water rescue planning, building design, and consideration for environmental and cultural impacts.
But while more data centers are popping up, these topics are front of mind for advocates to hold data centers accountable to pay their fair share.
The advocates tell us data centers, often operated by major tech companies, consume massive amounts of electricity and water, yet current policies fail to ensure transparency, accountability, and fair cost distribution.
However, attorneys say modern data centers use less water than older ones, and they could pay for energy infrastructure in parts of Nevada.
Advocates are urging lawmakers to pass legislation on clear standards requiring data centers to pay for the utilities to minimize environmental impacts for long-term sustainability during next year's session.
Olivia Tanager, the executive director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter, says they believe that regulations and standards benefit everybody, and data centers should not be an exception to this rule.
"We're advocating for a comprehensive framework of clear standards, standards that have been put into place in other places, but Nevada is unfortunately falling behind in regulating this industry, It has impacts on our water, on our air quality, and on your utility bill, so we want to make sure people are protected as the AI rush continues and data centers continue to come here," she said.
Tanager explained how Nevada is falling short compared to other states in this department. She explained the priority is to make sure costs are not passed down to residential rate payers and small business owners through energy bills.
She tells us other states have instituted a large load tariff, which puts data centers into their own rate class, preventing costs from being passed down to people in the community.
"We're seeing more legislation to that effect pop up across the country. Because of Nevada's biennial legislature, unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to introduce such legislation last session, and so 2027 is our only shot," she said. "If we don't pass legislation and regulate data centers in 2027, Nevada rate payers are going to be left holding the bag."
If you hear about big tech companies rolling into town but don't know much about the effects, Tanager says there are some key things you should know.
"One of the things that folks should know is that even if data centers are not using evaporative cooling technology, that does not mean they're off the hook for still using an enormous amount of water. How data centers are powered—the energy generation associated with these facilities really matters in terms of the amount of water that they use."
She also claims that sometimes data centers are powered with backup diesel generators when there is stress on the grid, which also impacts air quality.
"And we're already a state that struggles with air quality issues, and so for that to be exacerbated by hundreds and hundreds of huge backup diesel generators per data center, it's really concerning," says Tanager.
Tanager also says northern Nevada is bearing the brunt of the data center rush right now, but the rush is still impacting southern Nevada as well.
The Sierra Club has worked on a piece of legislation at the Public Utilities Commission called the Clean Transition Tariff (CTT), and that is also something Nevada is leading on.
"It's one of a kind in the country, and the CTT is a tariff that allows data centers that do want to opt in to being 100 percent renewable energy to do so and make sure those costs are hopefully not passed on to others," said Tanager.
Tanager says their goal is to get more data centers to use this tariff, and that companies like Google are already using the CTT.
This is expected to be discussed more at the next legislative session.
