California cracks down on water theft but spares data centers from disclosing how much they use

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have tracked data centers’ growing water footprint in California.

He says California is “well positioned” to support the data center boom, and he is reluctant to “impose rigid reporting requirements.”

The governor signed other bills on water supply goals, groundwater dispute resolution, and water theft from fire hydrants.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed legislation that would have required data centers to report how much water they use.

New data centers have been rapidly proliferating in California and other western states as the rise of artificial intelligence and growing investments in cloud computing drive a construction boom. The centers, full of equipment, generate lots of heat and can use large quantities of water to cool their servers an