Clean Cloud Act Targets Crypto Mining and AI Infrastructure With Climate Penalties

A new Senate proposal, known as the Clean Cloud Act, has been introduced to impose emissions limits and financial penalties on data centers that exceed federally set environmental benchmarks. Introduced by Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and John Fetterman, the bill aims to curb rising power demand from data-heavy industries and prevent surging energy costs for American households.

The proposed legislation would task the EPA with setting an emissions performance standard for facilities with over 100 kilowatts of installed IT capacity. These standards would be regionally based and require an 11% annual emissions reduction. Any facility exceeding these limits would face penalties starting at $20 per metric ton of CO2e, with annual increases based on inflation plus an additional $10 per ton.

Critics argue the bill unfairly singles out crypto mining, while industry leaders warn that ongoing trade tensions and aggressive tariffs could further disrupt operations. Major mining firms like Galaxy, CoreScientific, and Terawulf are already integrating AI services into their operations in response to declining crypto revenues.