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 Tech-
nology 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 consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
concerned 
A BILL 
To require the Administrator of the Environmental Protec-
tion 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 report-
ing system for the reporting of the environmental im-
pacts of artificial intelligence, and for other purposes. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:19 Feb 07, 2024
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6652
E:\BILLS\H7197.IH
H7197
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Artificial Intelligence 
Environmental Impacts Act of 2024’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Multiple estimates indicate that the amount 
of computational power being used for artificial in-
telligence applications has increased rapidly over the 
last decade. A 2022 estimate suggested that the 
number of computational operations being used to 
create each of the largest artificial intelligence mod-
els is currently doubling every 10 months. 
(2) Accelerating use of artificial intelligence has 
the potential to greatly increase energy consumption 
due to the power utilization of computer hardware 
required for training and operating artificial intel-
ligence models, despite ongoing efficiency gains in 
both artificial intelligence models and hardware. 
(3) Rapid growth in data center infrastructure, 
including cooling systems and backup power equip-
ment, supporting artificial intelligence and other 
computing-intensive technologies contributes to pol-
lution, water consumption, and land-use changes. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:19 Feb 07, 2024
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7197.IH
H7197
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
(4) Resource and energy-intensive manufac-
turing processes are required for the hardware that 
runs artificial intelligence and other computing-in-
tensive technologies, leading to significant environ-
mental impacts. 
(5) Yearly increases in electronic waste (known 
as ‘‘e-waste’’) pose increasing environmental and 
health risks, and will likely be exacerbated by out-
dated and discarded hardware used for artificial in-
telligence 
and 
other 
computing-intensive 
tech-
nologies. 
(6) Many applications of artificial intelligence 
can have direct and indirect positive environmental 
impacts. Positive environmental impacts may include 
optimizing systems for energy efficiency, developing 
renewable energy, advancing planetary systems re-
search, enabling discovery of new materials, and 
automatically monitoring environmental changes. 
However, artificial intelligence applications may also 
have direct and indirect negative environmental im-
pacts, including rebound effects, behavioral impacts, 
and accelerating high-pollution activities. 
(7) Estimates of the current and future envi-
ronmental impacts of artificial intelligence are cur-
rently uncertain. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:19 Feb 07, 2024
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7197.IH
H7197
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
(8) Negative environmental effects may have a 
disparate impact across different regions and com-
munities. 
(9) Various options exist to reduce the negative 
environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, in-
cluding using more efficient models, hardware, and 
data centers, using renewable energy, and examining 
the impacts of artificial intelligence applications. 
(10) Promoting transparency and environ-
mental protection measures may help mitigate nega-
tive environmental impacts of the rapid growth in 
artificial intelligence use, while promoting artificial 
intelligence uses with net positive environmental im-
pacts. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.—The term ‘‘ar-
tificial intelligence’’ has the meaning given such 
term in section 5002 of the National Artificial Intel-
ligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401). 
(2) ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE
MODEL.—The 
term ‘‘artificial intelligence model’’ means a compo-
nent of an information system that implements arti-
ficial intelligence technology and uses computational, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:19 Feb 07, 2024
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7197.IH
H7197
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
statistical, 
or 
machine-learning 
techniques 
to 
produce outputs from a given set of inputs. 
(3) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM.—The 
term ‘‘artificial intelligence system’’ means any data 
system, software, hardware, application, tool, or util-
ity that operates in whole or in part using artificial 
intelligence. 
(4) VOLUNTARY
REPORTING
ENTITY.—The 
term ‘‘voluntary reporting entity’’ means any com-
pany, organization, or other entity that— 
(A) develops or operates an artificial intel-
ligence system; and 
(B) chooses to participate in the reporting 
system developed under section 6. 
SEC. 4. STUDY ON ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF ARTIFI-
CIAL INTELLIGENCE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 
Environmental Protection Agency, in collaboration with 
the Secretary of Energy, the Director of the National In-
stitute of Standards and Technology, and the Director of 
the Office of Science and Technology Policy, shall carry 
out, and submit to Congress and make publicly available 
a report describing the results of, a comprehensive study 
on the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:19 Feb 07, 2024
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7197.IH
H7197
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
(b) REQUIREMENTS.—The study required under sub-
section (a) shall include an examination of— 
(1) the energy consumption and pollution asso-
ciated with the full lifecycle of artificial intelligence 
models, including the design, development, deploy-
ment, and use of those artificial intelligence models; 
(2) the energy consumption and pollution asso-
ciated with the full lifecycle of artificial intelligence 
hardware, including the extraction of raw materials, 
manufacturing, and electronic waste associated with 
that hardware; 
(3) the energy and water consumption for the 
cooling of the data centers used in the design, devel-
opment, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence 
models; 
(4) how choices made during the design, devel-
opment, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence 
models, including the efficiency of the artificial intel-
ligence models used, the location, power source, and 
design of data centers used, and the type of hard-
ware used, impact the resulting environmental im-
pacts; 
(5) potential environmental impacts that could 
be acute at local scales, which may include added 
power loads that create grid stress, water with-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:19 Feb 07, 2024
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H7197.IH
H7197
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB