The "Clean Cloud Act of 2025" proposes significant amendments to the Clean Air Act, aiming to address the growing energy consumption and associated emissions from data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities. Congress finds that these facilities, particularly cryptomining, are increasingly energy-intensive, with a lack of transparency regarding their power sources, and are contributing to the reactivation of retiring fossil fuel plants. The bill defines a "covered facility" as a data center or cryptomining facility with over 100 kilowatts of installed information technology nameplate power.

A core provision of the bill is the establishment of an annual data collection program, jointly administered by the EPA and the Energy Information Administration. This program requires covered facilities to report detailed information, including their location, type, owner, total annual electricity consumption, and the percentage of electricity from various generation sources, both from the grid and behind-the-meter assets. Electric utilities serving these facilities must also report the total electricity consumed by each facility, its resource mix, and their rate structures.

The legislation introduces an Emissions Performance Standard, which sets greenhouse gas emissions intensity baselines for the electric grid in different regions. These baselines are to be published by December 31, 2025, and will progressively decrease, reaching zero metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent per kilowatt-hour by 2035. This declining baseline aims to drive a transition towards cleaner energy sources for these operations.

Beginning January 1, 2026, fees will be assessed on electric utilities and covered facilities that exceed these regional baselines. Electric utilities will be charged for grid electricity consumed by covered facilities that surpasses the baseline, while covered facilities will be charged for behind-the-meter electricity exceeding the baseline. The fee starts at $20 per kilowatt-hour of excess emissions intensity, adjusted annually for inflation and an additional $10 increase, though facilities powered entirely by zero-carbon electricity are exempt.

Crucially, electric utilities are prohibited from passing these fees on to non-covered facility customers, with penalties for non-compliance. Funds collected from these fees will be allocated to three main areas: supporting the administration of the reporting program, providing grants to States, Tribes, municipalities, and utilities to lower residential electricity consumer costs, and funding "clean firm" grants. These grants will support the research, development, and deployment of zero-carbon electricity generation assets with high capacity factors or long-duration energy storage assets.