Data centers have grabbed so many headlines in Oklahoma and across the U.S., readers nearly need a scorecard to keep track of projects, developments and protests.
Two weeks after the Oklahoma City Council granted exemptions to its data center moratorium, other cities are giving serious consideration to pauses in data center developments.
So here’s a rundown of some developments across the country.
Just across the Oklahoma state line in Joplin, Missouri, there’s more than passing interest in a proposed data center, reported the Joplin Globe.
“A meeting in Sarcoxie to discuss data centers and their impact on people living nearby brought out between 175 and 200 people Thursday night. Geronimo Power, a company based in Minnesota, announced in March that it planned to build a hyperscale data park with multiple data centers on land just southwest of La Russell in eastern Jasper County. The company also announced plans for a 2,000-acre solar farm and battery stations for rural Jasper and Lawrence counties north of La Russell to partially power the data center park.”
A proposed data center development moratorium in central Arkansas’ Pulaski county was thought to have passed last week when the Pulaski County Quorum Court voted in support of it. But within a new days, the parliamentarian told the Quorum Court the moratorium did not pass but it did not meet the requirement for an emergency ordinance. It needed 10 votes and on member whose “present” vote was wrongly recorded as “Aye.” The final vote was nine ayes, four nays and two justices of the pace voting as present.
From the Arkansas Democrat Gazette:
“The Little Rock Board of Directors is voting this week on new data center regulations that will strike a balance between promoting economic development and protecting residents and the environment, according to Mayor Frank Scott Jr.
But according to a city panel on the environment, Scott’s proposal doesn’t go far enough. The Little Rock Sustainability Commission is urging the board to delay its vote and instead “transparently engage” with concerned residents about data centers.”
New Mexico’s Project Jupiter AI data center, faced with opposition as it’s under construction near the southeast small border town of Santa Teresa, announced recently it will utilize fuel cells to power its operations instead of gas turbines or diesel generators. Fuel cells are devices that convert methane, the primary ingredient in natural gas, into electricity through chemical reaction with oxygen. Developed by BorderPlex Digital Assets, the data center is being built for Oracle, which will use it to host artificial intelligence infrastructure for OpenAI.
In Santa Fe, County leaders are weighing a year-long moratorium. The proposed ordinance would block any development of new data centers so that land use regulations and environmental standards can be prepared. KOB TV reports: There are no active proposed data center projects in Santa Fe County. However, county commissioners said they want to be prepared, especially after seeing the backlash against Project Jupiter in Doña Ana County. Socorro County commissioners are also scheduled to vote on their own temporary moratorium on data center developments early next month. Residents there are pushing back against Green Data’s proposed 10,000-acre data center and solar array project.
“The Rio Grande is completely dry up in Albuquerque. We’re completely relying on groundwater. And you want to have this water-hungry data center in the middle of Socorro. It’s kind of offensive to even suggest that,” one resident said at a New Mexico Tech town hall on the matter.
Bernalillo County leaders approved new guardrails for data center projects in February.
In the northeast, a developer withdrew an application to build a data center at a New Hampshire business park after a “whirlwind” of protest. The New Hampshire Bulletin reported that by Wednesday, May 27, an online petition had accumulated thousands of signatures, and protesters were preparing signs decrying the proposal. Some reached out directly to the applicant, Hampton businessman Tom Moulton, who said he was taken aback by the response. Ultimately, the outcry led him, that afternoon — through a “recently” retained lawyer — to send a letter to the town announcing he would withdraw the application, at least for now.
In nearby Maine, residents of a coastal town came out against a proposed tidal-powered underwater data center. They expressed worries about high energy demand and possible damage to wetlands.
New York Gov. Kathy Hockul came out against a statewide data center moratorium advocated by some Democratic lawmakers. She says land use decisions like within the purview of local governments.
“This is a local decision for municipalities, its land use, which is the purview of local governments,” Hochul told reporters Thursday. “Its not a statewide approach necessarily, but it’s something I’m looking at intensely.”
The Tennessee Valley Authority is considering a series of rate and charge proposals for data centers. It’s part of a plan to protect ratepayers against subsidizing large-load customers.
In North Carolina, legislators are giving consideration to a Republican proposal to create restrictions on data centers including provisions delaying the retirement of coal-fired power plants. They also want to take steps to reverse the state’s 2050 carbon neutrality goal.
There are supporters from data centers and one group throwing more weight behind the energy-guzzling facilities, according to E&E News, are labor union from California to New Jersey.
As legislators in both parties — but especially in blue states — pitch everything from cost restrictions to water standards to outright bans on new data centers, unions are pushing back to protect what they see as the best opportunity for work they’ve had for years, reported the site.
“We’re in a moment where we’ve got an industry again, something that’s birthed right here in America,” said Jason Parker, president of the Virginia State Building & Construction Trades Council, which has pushed against efforts to roll back data centers’ tax incentives. “Now all of the sudden everyone is against it. It’s hard to wrap your head around.”
In Kentucky, bitcoin mining company TeraWulf has proposed a data center complex that would require more than 1 GW of power. TeraWulf says the Muskie Data Campus will eventually need more than one gigawatt of electricity, or enough to support more than 800,000 average homes for an entire year. The bitcoin mining company expects to need its first 500 megawatts by the second half of 2028 and the rest in 2030, reported public radio station WEKU.
More cities are joining the effort to temporarily block new permits and site plans for data centers giving them time to develop rules around the projects. Stateline reports it is happening in Georgia and North Carolina.
