{"id":471221,"date":"2026-09-21T21:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T21:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471221\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T21:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T21:28:09","slug":"california-tightens-rules-on-ai-data-center-energy-and-water-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471221\/","title":{"rendered":"California tightens rules on AI data center energy and water use"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">California Gov. Gavin Newsom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/2026\/09\/21\/governor-newsom-signs-most-comprehensive-data-center-laws-in-the-nation-providing-communities-more-control-on-water-electricity-and-land-use\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has signed seven bills<\/a> designed to prevent AI data centers from passing utility costs onto residents, as reported earlier by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-09-21\/newsom-signs-bills-to-regulate-data-center-industry-criticizes-trump-for-inaction\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. The package of laws requires the California Public Utilities Commission to introduce a new rate classification for data centers, while forcing them to pay for upgrades to local power grids and water systems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Other bills included in the package will require proposed data centers to disclose their estimated water use to local governments, along with information about energy efficiency and drought planning. They must also meet certain energy, water, and fuel consumption requirements before qualifying for a streamlined approval process. Last week, Newsom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/policy\/997516\/california-governor-newsom-ai-kill-switch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signed an executive order to speed up the creation<\/a> of an AI \u201ckill switch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">\u201cWhile the Trump administration moves toward deregulation, communities are left to deal with the consequences \u2014 higher electricity demand, grid constraints, water use, and pollution,\u201d Newsom says in the press release. \u201cWith these laws, we are ensuring that Californians remain in the driver\u2019s seat \u2014 and that those profiting from data centers aren\u2019t doing so at our expense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed seven bills designed to prevent AI data centers from passing utility costs&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2007,7,9,8,100,5409,13],"class_list":["post-471221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ai","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-news","tag-policy","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}