I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7197 

To require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to 

carry out a study on the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, 

to require the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology to convene a consortium on such environmental impacts, and 

to require the Director to develop a voluntary reporting system for 

the reporting of the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 1, 2024 

Ms. ESHOO (for herself and Mr. BEYER) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and 

in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to 

be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 

concerned 

A BILL 

To require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to carry out a study on the environmental 

impacts of artificial intelligence, to require the Director 

of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 

to convene a consortium on such environmental impacts, 

and to require the Director to develop a voluntary reporting system for the reporting of the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, and for other purposes. 


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1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Artificial Intelligence 

5 Environmental Impacts Act of 2024’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) Multiple estimates indicate that the amount 

9 of computational power being used for artificial in10 telligence applications has increased rapidly over the 

11 last decade. A 2022 estimate suggested that the 

12 number of computational operations being used to 

13 create each of the largest artificial intelligence mod14 els is currently doubling every 10 months. 

15 (2) Accelerating use of artificial intelligence has 

16 the potential to greatly increase energy consumption 

17 due to the power utilization of computer hardware 

18 required for training and operating artificial intel19 ligence models, despite ongoing efficiency gains in 

20 both artificial intelligence models and hardware. 

21 (3) Rapid growth in data center infrastructure, 

22 including cooling systems and backup power equip23 ment, supporting artificial intelligence and other 

24 computing-intensive technologies contributes to pol25 lution, water consumption, and land-use changes. 


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1 (4) Resource and energy-intensive manufac2 turing processes are required for the hardware that 

3 runs artificial intelligence and other computing-in4 tensive technologies, leading to significant environ5 mental impacts. 

6 (5) Yearly increases in electronic waste (known 

7 as ‘‘e-waste’’) pose increasing environmental and 

8 health risks, and will likely be exacerbated by out9 dated and discarded hardware used for artificial in10 telligence and other computing-intensive tech11 nologies. 

12 (6) Many applications of artificial intelligence 

13 can have direct and indirect positive environmental 

14 impacts. Positive environmental impacts may include 

15 optimizing systems for energy efficiency, developing 

16 renewable energy, advancing planetary systems re17 search, enabling discovery of new materials, and 

18 automatically monitoring environmental changes. 

19 However, artificial intelligence applications may also 

20 have direct and indirect negative environmental im21 pacts, including rebound effects, behavioral impacts, 

22 and accelerating high-pollution activities. 

23 (7) Estimates of the current and future envi24 ronmental impacts of artificial intelligence are cur25 rently uncertain. 


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1 (8) Negative environmental effects may have a 

2 disparate impact across different regions and com3 munities. 

4 (9) Various options exist to reduce the negative 

5 environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, in6 cluding using more efficient models, hardware, and 

7 data centers, using renewable energy, and examining 

8 the impacts of artificial intelligence applications. 

9 (10) Promoting transparency and environ10 mental protection measures may help mitigate nega11 tive environmental impacts of the rapid growth in 

12 artificial intelligence use, while promoting artificial 

13 intelligence uses with net positive environmental im14 pacts. 

15 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

16 In this Act: 

17 (1) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.—The term ‘‘ar18 tificial intelligence’’ has the meaning given such 

19 term in section 5002 of the National Artificial Intel20 ligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401). 

21 (2) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MODEL.—The 

22 term ‘‘artificial intelligence model’’ means a compo23 nent of an information system that implements arti24 ficial intelligence technology and uses computational, 


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1 statistical, or machine-learning techniques to 

2 produce outputs from a given set of inputs. 

3 (3) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM.—The 

4 term ‘‘artificial intelligence system’’ means any data 

5 system, software, hardware, application, tool, or util6 ity that operates in whole or in part using artificial 

7 intelligence. 

8 (4) VOLUNTARY REPORTING ENTITY.—The 

9 term ‘‘voluntary reporting entity’’ means any com10 pany, organization, or other entity that— 

11 (A) develops or operates an artificial intel12 ligence system; and 

13 (B) chooses to participate in the reporting 

14 system developed under section 6. 

15 SEC. 4. STUDY ON ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF ARTIFI16 CIAL INTELLIGENCE. 

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 

18 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 

19 Environmental Protection Agency, in collaboration with 

20 the Secretary of Energy, the Director of the National In21 stitute of Standards and Technology, and the Director of 

22 the Office of Science and Technology Policy, shall carry 

23 out, and submit to Congress and make publicly available 

24 a report describing the results of, a comprehensive study 

25 on the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence. 


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1 (b) REQUIREMENTS.—The study required under sub2 section (a) shall include an examination of— 

3 (1) the energy consumption and pollution asso4 ciated with the full lifecycle of artificial intelligence 

5 models, including the design, development, deploy6 ment, and use of those artificial intelligence models; 

7 (2) the energy consumption and pollution asso8 ciated with the full lifecycle of artificial intelligence 

9 hardware, including the extraction of raw materials, 

10 manufacturing, and electronic waste associated with 

11 that hardware; 

12 (3) the energy and water consumption for the 

13 cooling of the data centers used in the design, devel14 opment, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence 

15 models; 

16 (4) how choices made during the design, devel17 opment, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence 

18 models, including the efficiency of the artificial intel19 ligence models used, the location, power source, and 

20 design of data centers used, and the type of hard21 ware used, impact the resulting environmental im22 pacts; 

23 (5) potential environmental impacts that could 

24 be acute at local scales, which may include added 

25 power loads that create grid stress, water withVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:19 Feb 07, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7197.IH H7197

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1 drawals that create water stress, or local noise im2 pacts; 

3 (6) the positive environmental impacts associ4 ated with applications of artificial intelligence, which 

5 may include optimizing systems for energy effi6 ciency, developing renewable energy, advancing plan7 etary systems research, enabling discovery of new 

8 materials, and automatically monitoring environ9 mental changes; 

10 (7) the negative environmental impacts associ11 ated with applications of artificial intelligence, which 

12 may include rebound effects, behavioral impacts, and 

13 accelerating high-pollution activities; 

14 (8) disparate impacts in the negative environ15 mental impacts of artificial intelligence; 

16 (9) other environmental impacts, as determined 

17 by the Administrator of the Environmental Protec18 tion Agency; and 

19 (10) the results of the updated data center 

20 study carried out under section 453(e)(2) of the En21 ergy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (42 

22 U.S.C. 17112(e)(2)). 

23 (c) PUBLIC COMMENT REQUIRED.—In conducting 

24 the study required under subsection (a), the Administrator 


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1 of the Environmental Protection Agency shall solicit and 

2 consider public comments. 

3 SEC. 5. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ENVIRONMENTAL IM4 PACTS CONSORTIUM. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the National In6 stitute of Standards and Technology shall, in consultation 

7 with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection 

8 Agency, the Secretary of Energy, and such others as the 

9 Director considers appropriate, convene a consortium of 

10 stakeholders, including members from academia, civil soci11 ety, and industry, to identify the future measurements, 

12 methodologies, standards, and other appropriate needs, in 

13 order to measure and report the full range of environ14 mental impacts of artificial intelligence. 

15 (b) LOCATION.—The Director may determine the lo16 cation of the consortium within the National Institute of 

17 Standards and Technology. 

18 (c) GOALS.—The goals of the consortium shall in19 clude the following: 

20 (1) Facilitating consistent, comparable report21 ing on the environmental impacts of the full lifecycle 

22 of artificial intelligence models, systems, and hard23 ware. 

24 (2) According to technical feasibility, the devel25 opment or cataloging of open source software and 


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1 hardware tools and other resources designed to fa2 cilitate the measurement of environmental impacts 

3 of artificial intelligence models, systems, and hard4 ware. 

5 (3) Providing recommendations on how to miti6 gate the negative, and promote the positive, environ7 mental impacts of artificial intelligence. 

8 SEC. 6. REPORTING SYSTEM FOR VOLUNTARY REPORTING 

9 OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF ARTIFI10 CIAL INTELLIGENCE. 

11 (a) VOLUNTARY REPORTING SYSTEM.—The Director 

12 of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 

13 shall, in consultation with the Administrator of the Envi14 ronmental Protection Agency, the Secretary of Energy, 

15 the consortium convened under section 5, and such others 

16 as the Director considers appropriate, develop a system 

17 for voluntary reporting by voluntary reporting entities of 

18 the full range of environmental impacts of artificial intel19 ligence. 

20 (b) GUIDELINES.— 

21 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall develop 

22 guidelines for voluntary reporting entities on how to 

23 participate in the voluntary reporting system devel24 oped under subsection (a). Such guidelines may in25 clude guidelines on how to calculate and report enVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:19 Feb 07, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7197.IH H7197

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1 ergy consumption, water consumption, pollution, and 

2 electronic-waste associated with the full lifecycle of 

3 artificial intelligence models and hardware, as well 

4 as other positive and negative impacts of artificial 

5 intelligence use, as determined by the Director. 

6 (2) PUBLIC COMMENTS.—Before finalizing the 

7 guidelines under paragraph (1), the Director shall 

8 solicit comments from the public on a draft version 

9 of the guidelines. 

10 (c) AVAILABILITY.—The Director shall, to the max11 imum extent practicable and with consideration to privi12 leged business information, make submissions to the vol13 untary reporting system under subsection (a) available on 

14 a public website. 

15 SEC. 7. REPORT TO CONGRESS. 

16 Not later than 4 years after the date of the enact17 ment of this Act, the Administrator of the Environmental 

18 Protection Agency, the Secretary of Energy, and the Di19 rector of the National Institute of Standards and Tech20 nology shall jointly submit to Congress a report detailing 

21 the following: 

22 (1) The main findings of the consortium con23 vened under section 5. 

24 (2) A description of the reporting system cre25 ated under section 6. 


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1 (3) Recommendations for legislative or adminis2 trative action to mitigate the negative and promote 

3 the positive environmental impacts of artificial intel4 ligence. 

Æ 


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