{"id":127033,"date":"2025-04-11T23:16:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T23:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=127033"},"modified":"2025-04-11T23:16:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T23:16:18","slug":"us-senate-bill-threatens-crypto-ai-data-centers-with-fees-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=127033","title":{"rendered":"US Senate bill threatens crypto, AI data centers with fees \u2014 Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsDraft legislation in the US Senate threatens to hit data centers serving blockchain networks and artificial intelligence models with fees if they exceed federal emissions targets, according to an April 11 Bloomberg report.\u00a0<br \/>\nLed by Senate Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse and John Fetterman, the draft bill purportedly aims to address environmental impacts from rising energy demand and protect households from higher energy bills, Bloomberg said.<br \/>\nDubbed the Clean Cloud Act, the legislation mandates that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set an emissions performance standard for data centers and crypto mining facilities with over 100 KW of installed IT nameplate power.<br \/>\nThe standard would be based on regional grid emissions intensities, with an 11% annual reduction target. The legislation also includes penalties for emissions exceeding the set standard, starting at $20 per ton of CO2e, with the penalty increasing annually by inflation plus an additional $10.<br \/>\n\u201cSurging power demand from cryptominers and data centers is outpacing the growth of carbon-free electricity,\u201d notes a minority blog post on the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works website, adding that data centers\u2019 electricity usage is projected to account for up to 12% of the US total power demand by 2028.<br \/>\nAccording to research from Morgan Stanley, the rapid growth of data centers is projected to generate approximately 2.5 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions globally by the end of the decade.<br \/>\nFor Matthew Sigel, VanEck\u2019s head of research, the proposed legislation effectively seeks to single out Bitcoin (BTC) miners and similar operations for energy consumption in a \u201cLosing \u2018Blame the Server Racks\u2019 Strategy,\u201d he said in an April 11 X post.\u00a0<br \/>\nIn addition, the law could clash with the US\u2019s policy under President Donald Trump, who repealed a 2023 executive order by former President Joe Biden setting AI safety standards. Trump has previously declared his intention to make the US the \u201cworld capital\u201d of AI and cryptocurrency.<br \/>\nNew US draft bill would penalize AI, crypto data centers for power consumption. Source: Matthew SigelRelated:\u00a0Trade tensions to speed institutional crypto adoption \u2014 Execs<br \/>\nBitcoin and AI converge<br \/>\nThe draft law, which has yet to pass in the Senate, comes as Bitcoin miners \u2014 including Galaxy, CoreScientific, and Terawulf \u2014 increasingly pivot toward supplying high-performance computing (HPC) power for AI models, VanEck said.<br \/>\nBitcoin miners have struggled in 2025 as declining cryptocurrency prices weigh on business models already impacted by the Bitcoin network\u2019s most recent halving.<br \/>\nMiners are \u201cdiversifying into AI data-center hosting as a way to expand revenue and repurpose existing infrastructure for high-performance computing,\u201d Coin Metrics said.<br \/>\nComparison of miners\u2019 AI-related contracts. Source: VanEckAccording to Coin Metrics, miners\u2019 incomes began to stabilize in the first quarter of 2025.\u00a0However, the recovery could be cut short if ongoing trade wars disrupt miners\u2019 business models, several cryptocurrency executives told Cointelegraph.\u00a0<br \/>\n\u201cAggressive tariffs and retaliatory trade policies could create obstacles for node operators, validators, and other core participants in blockchain networks,\u201d Nicholas Roberts-Huntley, CEO of Concrete &amp; Glow Finance, said.\u00a0<br \/>\n\u201cIn moments of global uncertainty, the infrastructure supporting crypto, not just the assets themselves, can become collateral damage.\u201d<br \/>\nMagazine:\u00a0Financial nihilism in crypto is over \u2014 It\u2019s time to dream big again<a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/us-bill-threatens-crypto-ai-data-centers-fees-report?utm_source=rss_feed&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsDraft legislation in the US Senate threatens to hit data centers serving blockchain networks and artificial intelligence models with fees if they exceed federal emissions targets, according to&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127033"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}