# New Jersey — Data Center Policy Brief

_Generated 2026-08-21 from the Data Center Policy Tracker. Verify every item against its primary source._

## Snapshot
- 15 tracked items: 12 state bills and 3 federal items tied to the state delegation.

## Leading themes
- Certification & Standards: 13
- Energy: 13
- Water: 12
- Grid Reliability: 8
- Siting & Land Use: 7
- Ratepayer: 6
- Carbon: 5

## Policy mechanisms
- Disclosure & reporting: 8
- Water standard: 4
- Grid & interconnection: 2
- Siting & permitting: 2
- Community participation: 1
- Moratorium: 1

## Tracked records
- **NJ-A5294** — "Responsible Data Center Development and Resource Protection Act"; establishes Statewide framework concerning siting, land use approval, energy sourcing, water use, and environmental impacts of large load data center development. (Introduced, Referred to Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee) — https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/A5294/2026
- **NJ-S4402** — "Responsible Data Center Development and Resource Protection Act"; establishes Statewide framework concerning siting, land use approval, energy sourcing, water use, and environmental impacts of large load data center development. (Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee) — https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/S4402/2026
- **NJ-S680** — Requires energy usage plan for proposed artificial intelligence data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities; requires all electricity for artificial intelligence data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities to be derived from new clean energy sources. (Referred to Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee) — https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/S680/2026
- **NJ-A1170** — Requires submission of energy usage plan to BPU for proposed artificial intelligence data centers; requires all electricity for artificial intelligence data centers to be derived from new clean energy sources. (Introduced, Referred to Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee) — https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/A1170/2026
- **NJ-S3379** — Requires data center owners and operators to submit semi-annual water and energy usage reports to BPU. (Passed Senate (Passed Both Houses) (39-0)) — https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/S3379/2026
- **NJ-A4096** — Requires data center owners and operators to submit semi-annual water and energy usage reports to BPU. (Substituted by S3379 (2R)) — https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/A4096/2026
- **NJ-A4696** — Requires owner or operator of data center to submit water and energy usage report to BPU. (Introduced, Referred to Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee) — https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/A4696/2026
- **NJ-S2274** — Requires owner or operator of data center to submit water and energy usage report to BPU. (Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Environment and Energy Committee) — https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/S2274/2026
- **NJ-S4400** — Requires DEP to conduct study of short and long term effects of water use by large-scale data centers. (Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Environment and Energy Committee) — https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/S4400/2026
- **HR-8488** — AI Data Center Site Selection Transparency Act of 2026 (Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.) — https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8488
- **NJ-A3966** — Requires DEP to conduct study of short and long term effects of water use by large-scale data centers. (Reported out of Asm. Comm. with Amendments, and Referred to Assembly Appropriations Committee) — https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/A3966/2026
- **HR-7858** — Data Center Community Impact Act (Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.) — https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7858
- **HR-6984** — Data Center Transparency Act (Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.) — https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/6984
- **NJ-A796** — Requires electric public utilities to develop and apply special rules for certain data centers to protect non-data center customers from increased costs. (Approved P.L.2026, C.32.) — https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/A796/2026
- **NJ-A5224** — Requires data center developers to disclose certain information to public and elected officials before preliminary site plan consideration under MLUL. (Introduced, Referred to Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee) — https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/A5224/2026

## Coverage note
State legislation is title-matched for precision, so this is a high-signal sample rather than a complete census. The tracker does not yet ingest local/county proceedings or all state PUC/PSC dockets.