FL SB 484 signed (effective July 1) / NJ Sherrill plan May 27 — six states in 30 days

Plain-English framing. The Florida bill is structurally similar to the Wisconsin / Oregon / PA pattern (the data center pays its full cost of service) but adds two Florida-specific provisions worth tracking. The aquifer-permitting clause is the under-noted piece: Florida sits on the Floridan Aquifer System, and water-cooled hyperscale facilities have been a flashpoint in jurisdictions like Polk and Orange counties. Tightening the aquifer-permitting trigger is the state's way of putting a thumb on the scale toward air-cooled rather than water-cooled designs. The 'preserves local denial authority' clause is just as material as everything else in the bill, because it explicitly forecloses the preemption arguments that developers have used in some Florida county challenges. New Jersey is a new entrant to the regulating-states column. Until Sherrill's plan, NJ had taken a hands-off stance and was rumored to be one of the next places hyperscalers would expand (driven by Northern New Jersey's existing colo concentration and proximity to NYC). The Sherrill plan changes that calculation, especially the community-benefit-agreement and union-labor requirements. CBAs are a substantial new cost line that doesn't exist in NJ's current property-tax-only framework. The union-labor requirement is the more controversial piece — it materially raises construction costs (likely 15-30% in non-union markets) and pulls schedule slip-risk into the contracting layer. Both states fit into the broader pattern: in the last 30 days, six states (WI, OR, PA, NC, FL, NJ) have issued either a new tariff order or a new state-level regulatory framework for data centers. That is a regulatory clip rate of roughly one new framework every five days. Sources: Florida Executive Office of the Governor 'Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Law to Protect Floridians from Subsidizing Data Centers'; Central Jersey 'Gov. Sherrill Puts Data Centers on Notice'; MultiState 'State Data Center Policy 101: 2026 Legislative Guide'; Sierra Club 'Data Center State Policies, 2026' (PDF compendium); Climate Law Blog 'Data Center Regulation: What Local Governments Should Know about Large-Load Tariffs and Clean Transition Tariffs' (June 2).

Primary source · Florida Gov / Central Jersey / MultiState / Climate Law Blog ↗