NJ Just Told Data Centers to Start Reporting Resource Usage

Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a new law on Aug. 27 at the South Brunswick Public Library, and if you live anywhere near one of the dozens of data centers popping up around the state, it’s worth paying attention. The bill, S3379, requires every data center operating in New Jersey to report how much water and energy it’s using to the Board of Public Utilities every six months.

That is all there is to it. There are no penalties spelled out for going over, just tell us what you’re using.

Depending on who you ask this is either a meaningful first step or a meaningless gesture to those that do not want data centers. A recent poll from Stockton University William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy shows that 56% of New Jersey voters want artificial intelligence data centers banned in their towns.

What the data center reporting law requires

Data center owners and operators now have to file a report with BPU twice a year, for the next three years, covering:

Total energy consumption in kilowatt-hours including electricity, fuel, and cooling
Which public electric utility serves the facility, and any special service agreements
Every on-site power source, including backup generators and their permits
Energy use specifically from IT equipment
Total and peak daily water use, in cubic meters
Where that water comes from, and whether it’s potable or reclaimed

New facilities have six months from the law’s effective date to file their first report. If a data center’s already been running for a year or more, that window shrinks to three months.

The bill wasn’t close in the Legislature — it passed the Assembly 76-3 and the Senate 39-0, both on June 30. Sponsors included Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz and Sen. Raj Mukherji, along with Assembly members Michael Venezia, Shama Haider, and Rosaura Bagolie.

Sherrill’s office is framing this as the last piece of a four-part guardrail plan she laid out back in May: a new ratepayer class so data centers cover their own grid costs (that one already passed, as S731/A796), this transparency bill, standards for community benefits agreements, and labor protections requiring prevailing wages on data center construction.

“New Jersey is a hub for innovation, but that growth cannot come at the expense of our residents’ wallets or our environment,” Ruiz said. Fair enough. But a lot of the people actually living next to these facilities aren’t convinced a report filed every six months does much for them right now.

Why the timing matters

Here’s the thing this bill doesn’t mention, but that any New Jersey resident tracking the issue already knows: this state has a data center problem that’s moving a lot faster than the paperwork.

There are more than 80 data centers operating or planned in New Jersey right now, most clustered in North Jersey near the New York financial corridor, but increasingly pushing south into Cumberland and Ocean counties where land is cheaper and utility rates are lower. And the pushback has been loud. As of this week, 38 municipalities across the state have voted to ban new data center construction outright.

Jackson Township in Ocean County was the latest, passing its ban 4-1 just last Tuesday. Other towns that have recently banned data centers include New Brunswick, Howell and East Brunswick. CRAN, the advocacy group leading that charge, says more than a million New Jersey residents now live somewhere data centers simply aren’t allowed.

And then there’s Vineland.

The largest planned AI data center on the East Coast, DataOne, is under construction there in Cumberland County – and it’s currently the subject of a lawsuit and a federal violation complaint. A visual investigation using thermal drone footage found more than 60 unpermitted diesel generators running on-site, with at least 45 of them operating as of mid-August.

Neighbors less than a mile away say the noise runs constantly, wakes their kids up at night, and interrupts bedtime. The state’s own environmental agency confirmed it hasn’t issued a single permit for those generators.

So when this new reporting law says data centers have to disclose “all on-site power supplies, including… any permit information” — that’s not abstract. That’s a direct response to exactly what’s happening in Vineland right now, whether the bill’s sponsors say so or not.

The pushback isn’t really about the reports

Critics aren’t arguing the state shouldn’t collect this data. They’re arguing self-reported numbers, with no independent audit and no cap on usage, don’t actually stop anything.

“We already know that data centers are driving up our electric bills and wasting our drinking water. Asking these companies to report their own numbers doesn’t help,” said Ben Dziobek of Climate Revolution Action Network New Jersey. Jaclyn Rhoads of the Pinelands Alliance put it more bluntly: “Data center reporting for energy and water use after the damage is done is the antithesis of guardrails.” Her group wants a moratorium, not a form.

There’s also a carve-out worth knowing about: the most detailed sustainability data only gets required from facilities that took state incentives to build — and even those reports, opponents say, aren’t fully public. So the data centers with the least public accountability under this law may end up being the ones that never took a dollar of state money in the first place, which is often the ones building fastest and loudest, like DataOne.

What this means if you’re in New Jersey

If you’re near one of these facilities — or your town is currently debating whether to allow one — this law gives you something you didn’t have before: a paper trail. Twice a year, BPU will have hard numbers on exactly how much water and power a given data center is pulling. That’s useful ammunition for a town council fight, a local news story, or a public records request, even if it doesn’t come with teeth of its own.

It’s also worth watching whether this becomes a template. Sherrill’s office is calling this the fourth of four guardrails, but with 38 towns already saying no outright, and a project like DataOne generating lawsuits before it’s even finished, “reporting” may turn out to be step one of a longer fight — not the last word.

Sources:
ROI-NJ
NJ Legislature
Floodlight News