Action Alerts

Urge your State Senator to pass crucial legislation on data centers

What's At Stake

We are in the middle of Washington State’s legislation session, and we need your help.  

This year, the Washington Legislature convenes in a 60-day short session. The session began on Jan. 12 and will conclude on March 12. In a short session, things move especially quick, and the session is already reaching its final days.  We’re advocating for House Bill 2515 that would put much-needed, common-sense guardrails on data centers. Send a letter to your state Senator today. 

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This beneficial legislation would protect Washington’s ratepayers and regulate large data centers, which pose significant risks to people and the environment. The bill addresses:  

  • Affordability: The bill requires data centers to pay the full costs of electricity and grid investments to meet their significant energy requirements. This prevents data centers from passing these costs on to customers.   
  • Clean energy: The legislation closes loopholes for data centers and ensures Washington’s clean energy laws apply, ensuring that data centers obtain their power from renewable energy sources.  
  • Transparency: Data centers would be required to produce an annual sustainability report for the public documenting their resource water and energy use, emissions, and information about how they cool their servers.  
  • Unfortunately, a floor amendment eliminated curtailment –the fourth pillar of the bill’s core principles: Reliability: The legislation prioritizes keeping lights on for customers, including a provision that requires data centers to curtail their energy use during emergencies when utilities ask. 

We’re optimistic this House bill, which is now in the Senate chamber, will pass, but we need you to reach out to your Senators to ensure it moves through the process. Send a letter to your State Senator today.  

Earthjustice supports this legislation that would ensure Pacific Northwest energy remains affordable and reliable as demand for electricity grows due to the AI boom and the massive scaling up of data centers by wealthy tech corporations that rarely center community concerns. There will be more work to do in the future, to ensure the rapid expansion of these centers doesn’t further harm people and the environment. Urge your representatives to support these commonsense measures today.  

Racks of servers with blue LED lights sit in a room as a man works with something in the background.
Computer servers at Facebook's Prineville data centers. (Andy Tullis / The Bulletin via AP)

Delivery to Washington State Senate

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Your Actions Matter

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