II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3732 

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 1, 2024 

Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. WELCH, Mr. 

PADILLA, and Mr. BOOKER) introduced the following bill; which was read 

twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

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. 

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


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

3 Environmental Impacts Act of 2024’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 Congress finds the following: 

6 (1) Multiple estimates indicate that the amount 

7 of computational power being used for artificial in8 telligence applications has increased rapidly over the 

9 last decade. A 2022 estimate suggested that the 

10 number of computational operations being used to 

11 create each of the largest artificial intelligence mod12 els is currently doubling every 10 months. 

13 (2) Accelerating use of artificial intelligence has 

14 the potential to greatly increase energy consumption 

15 due to the power utilization of computer hardware 

16 required for training and operating artificial intel17 ligence models, despite ongoing efficiency gains in 

18 both artificial intelligence models and hardware. 

19 (3) Rapid growth in data center infrastructure, 

20 including cooling systems and backup power equip21 ment, supporting artificial intelligence and other 

22 computing-intensive technologies contributes to pol23 lution, water consumption, and land-use changes. 

24 (4) Resource and energy-intensive manufac25 turing processes are required for the hardware that 

26 runs artificial intelligence and other computing-inVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:54 Feb 06, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3732.IS S3732

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1 tensive technologies, leading to significant environ2 mental impacts. 

3 (5) Yearly increases in electronic waste (known 

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

5 health risks, and will likely be exacerbated by out6 dated and discarded hardware used for artificial in7 telligence and other computing-intensive tech8 nologies. 

9 (6) Many applications of artificial intelligence 

10 can have direct and indirect positive environmental 

11 impacts. Positive environmental impacts may include 

12 optimizing systems for energy efficiency, developing 

13 renewable energy, advancing planetary systems re14 search, enabling discovery of new materials, and 

15 automatically monitoring environmental changes. 

16 However, artificial intelligence applications may also 

17 have direct and indirect negative environmental im18 pacts, including rebound effects, behavioral impacts, 

19 and accelerating high-pollution activities. 

20 (7) Estimates of the current and future envi21 ronmental impacts of artificial intelligence are cur22 rently uncertain. 

23 (8) Negative environmental effects may have a 

24 disparate impact across different regions and com25 munities. 


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1 (9) Various options exist to reduce the negative 

2 environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, in3 cluding using more efficient models, hardware, and 

4 data centers, using renewable energy, and examining 

5 the impacts of artificial intelligence applications. 

6 (10) Promoting transparency and environ7 mental protection measures may help mitigate nega8 tive environmental impacts of the rapid growth in 

9 artificial intelligence use, while promoting artificial 

10 intelligence uses with net positive environmental im11 pacts. 

12 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

13 In this Act: 

14 (1) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.—The term ‘‘ar15 tificial intelligence’’ has the meaning given such 

16 term in section 5002 of the National Artificial Intel17 ligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401). 

18 (2) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MODEL.—The 

19 term ‘‘artificial intelligence model’’ means a compo20 nent of an information system that implements arti21 ficial intelligence technology and uses computational, 

22 statistical, or machine-learning techniques to 

23 produce outputs from a given set of inputs. 

24 (3) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM.—The 

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


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1 system, software, hardware, application, tool, or util2 ity that operates in whole or in part using artificial 

3 intelligence. 

4 (4) VOLUNTARY REPORTING ENTITY.—The 

5 term ‘‘voluntary reporting entity’’ means any com6 pany, organization, or other entity that— 

7 (A) develops or operates an artificial intel8 ligence system; and 

9 (B) chooses to participate in the reporting 

10 system developed under section 6. 

11 SEC. 4. STUDY ON ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF ARTIFI12 CIAL INTELLIGENCE. 

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

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

15 Environmental Protection Agency, in collaboration with 

16 the Secretary of Energy, the Director of the National In17 stitute of Standards and Technology, and the Director of 

18 the Office of Science and Technology Policy, shall carry 

19 out, and submit to Congress and make publicly available 

20 a report describing the results of, a comprehensive study 

21 on the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence. 

22 (b) REQUIREMENTS.—The study required under sub23 section (a) shall include an examination of— 

24 (1) the energy consumption and pollution asso25 ciated with the full lifecycle of artificial intelligence 


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1 models, including the design, development, deploy2 ment, and use of those artificial intelligence models; 

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

5 hardware, including the extraction of raw materials, 

6 manufacturing, and electronic waste associated with 

7 that hardware; 

8 (3) the energy and water consumption for the 

9 cooling of the data centers used in the design, devel10 opment, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence 

11 models; 

12 (4) how choices made during the design, devel13 opment, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence 

14 models, including the efficiency of the artificial intel15 ligence models used, the location, power source, and 

16 design of data centers used, and the type of hard17 ware used, impact the resulting environmental im18 pacts; 

19 (5) potential environmental impacts that could 

20 be acute at local scales, which may include added 

21 power loads that create grid stress, water with22 drawals that create water stress, or local noise im23 pacts; 

24 (6) the positive environmental impacts associ25 ated with applications of artificial intelligence, which 


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1 may include optimizing systems for energy effi2 ciency, developing renewable energy, advancing plan3 etary systems research, enabling discovery of new 

4 materials, and automatically monitoring environ5 mental changes; 

6 (7) the negative environmental impacts associ7 ated with applications of artificial intelligence, which 

8 may include rebound effects, behavioral impacts, and 

9 accelerating high-pollution activities; 

10 (8) disparate impacts in the negative environ11 mental impacts of artificial intelligence; 

12 (9) other environmental impacts, as determined 

13 by the Administrator of the Environmental Protec14 tion Agency; and 

15 (10) the results of the updated data center 

16 study carried out under section 453(e)(2) of the En17 ergy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (42 

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

19 (c) PUBLIC COMMENT REQUIRED.—In conducting 

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

21 of the Environmental Protection Agency shall solicit and 

22 consider public comments. 


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1 SEC. 5. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ENVIRONMENTAL IM2 PACTS CONSORTIUM. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the National In4 stitute of Standards and Technology shall, in consultation 

5 with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection 

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

7 Director considers appropriate, convene a consortium of 

8 stakeholders, including members from academia, civil soci9 ety, and industry, to identify the future measurements, 

10 methodologies, standards, and other appropriate needs, in 

11 order to measure and report the full range of environ12 mental impacts of artificial intelligence. 

13 (b) LOCATION.—The Director may determine the lo14 cation of the consortium within the National Institute of 

15 Standards and Technology. 

16 (c) GOALS.—The goals of the consortium shall in17 clude the following: 

18 (1) Facilitating consistent, comparable report19 ing on the environmental impacts of the full lifecycle 

20 of artificial intelligence models, systems, and hard21 ware. 

22 (2) According to technical feasibility, the devel23 opment or cataloging of open source software and 

24 hardware tools and other resources designed to fa25 cilitate the measurement of environmental impacts 


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1 of artificial intelligence models, systems, and hard2 ware. 

3 (3) Providing recommendations on how to miti4 gate the negative, and promote the positive, environ5 mental impacts of artificial intelligence. 

6 SEC. 6. REPORTING SYSTEM FOR VOLUNTARY REPORTING 

7 OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF ARTIFI8 CIAL INTELLIGENCE. 

9 (a) VOLUNTARY REPORTING SYSTEM.—The Director 

10 of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 

11 shall, in consultation with the Administrator of the Envi12 ronmental Protection Agency, the Secretary of Energy, 

13 the consortium convened under section 5, and such others 

14 as the Director considers appropriate, develop a system 

15 for voluntary reporting by voluntary reporting entities of 

16 the full range of environmental impacts of artificial intel17 ligence. 

18 (b) GUIDELINES.— 

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

20 guidelines for voluntary reporting entities on how to 

21 participate in the voluntary reporting system devel22 oped under subsection (a). Such guidelines may in23 clude guidelines on how to calculate and report en24 ergy consumption, water consumption, pollution, and 

25 electronic-waste associated with the full lifecycle of 


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1 artificial intelligence models and hardware, as well 

2 as other positive and negative impacts of artificial 

3 intelligence use, as determined by the Director. 

4 (2) PUBLIC COMMENTS.—Before finalizing the 

5 guidelines under paragraph (1), the Director shall 

6 solicit comments from the public on a draft version 

7 of the guidelines. 

8 (c) AVAILABILITY.—The Director shall, to the max9 imum extent practicable and with consideration to privi10 leged business information, make submissions to the vol11 untary reporting system under subsection (a) available on 

12 a public website. 

13 SEC. 7. REPORT TO CONGRESS. 

14 Not later than 4 years after the date of the enact15 ment of this Act, the Administrator of the Environmental 

16 Protection Agency, the Secretary of Energy, and the Di17 rector of the National Institute of Standards and Tech18 nology shall jointly submit to Congress a report detailing 

19 the following: 

20 (1) The main findings of the consortium con21 vened under section 5. 

22 (2) A description of the reporting system cre23 ated under section 6. 

24 (3) Recommendations for legislative or adminis25 trative action to mitigate the negative and promote 


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1 the positive environmental impacts of artificial intel2 ligence. 

Æ 


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