California makes data centers pay their way

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed seven data-center bills on September 21 that require operators to disclose water use and pay for grid upgrades. The state’s seven-bill announcement also removes blanket environmental-review exemptions for projects that cannot show compliance with energy, water, and fuel standards, while making operators pay for water-supply upgrades their projects require. For infrastructure builders, California has turned utility and water externalities into a permitting line item; the archive’s data-center grid-cost analysis explains why those costs were already central to project economics.