Environment & Energy Congressional Round-Up | September 7 - September 11, 2026

Highlights:

President Trump signed the Doug LaMalfa Federal Disaster Tax Relief Certainty Act (P.L. 119-108) into law. Reps. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.), and Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) led the bill to its passage to extend federal tax deductions for disaster-related casualty losses by one year. It will allow disaster victims to receive qualified casualty loss deductions for disasters federally declared between July 4, 2025 and December 31, 2026. 

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce advanced the Ratepayer Protection Act (H.R. 9340). Reps. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) and Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) introduced the bill, which would require state utility regulators to consider federal rules for data center-related grid upgrades. These rules include requirements that certain large-load customers, such as data centers, cover the full costs of all power generation and energy infrastructure upgrades made to support them. 

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) introduced the Responsible Data Center Siting Act of 2026 (H.R.10321) to establish guardrails for data center development. Specifically, the bill would require that developers consider energy availability, consumers’ electric bills, water use, electricity use, the surrounding environment, and noise pollution (among other factors) when identifying new data center sites. To learn more about these impacts, check out EESI’s data center article series. 

To catch up on all of the recent environmental and energy legislation in Congress, read the pdf here.