Plain-English background on why the Prince George's vote today matters as more than a local ordinance. Prince George's County is the second-largest county in Maryland by population (~955k residents), immediately east of Washington DC. It sits inside the PJM...
WUSA9 — Prince George's County debates 2-year data center development moratorium + WJLA — Data center protest held in Prince George's County as council considers 2-year moratorium + NBC4 Washington — Local Maryland governments pause data center development + Prince George's Suite — Data Centers On Hold + The Cool Down — Maryland anti-data-center rally draws counterprotesters before moratorium vote + Baltimore Banner — Prince George's County data centers may hinge on Election Day + Maryland Daily Record — Western MD county approves data center moratorium ↗
ERCOTPJMFERCVirginiaMoratoriumAir permitInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English background on what got killed and why it matters. Digital Gateway was the planned largest data center campus in the world by every dimension. Location: 2,100 acres of former farmland immediately east of Manassas National Battlefield Park in...
Washington Times — Company kills plan for world's largest data center hub near Manassas National Battlefield Park (Jul 3 2026) + Bloomberg — Blackstone's QTS Abandons Massive Data Center in Virginia (Jul 2 2026) + Potomac Local — QTS Withdraws Supreme Court Appeal, Ending Proposed Digital Gateway Data Center Project (Jul 3 2026) + FOX 5 DC — QTS drops appeal, ending plans for massive Prince William County data center + Tom's Hardware — Blackstone-owned QTS abandons planned world's largest data center campus after years of lawsuits — 2,100-acre Virginia Digital Gateway project dies over a newspaper-notice technicality + National Parks Conservation Association — Victory for Manassas: Proposed Massive Data Center Digital Gateway Threat Ends + InsideNova — Digital Gateway data center project in Prince William dies ↗
VirginiaMoratoriumAir permitRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →What the bill does. SB 730 combines four mechanisms that target the cost-shift question from different angles:
• Cost-share minimum: data centers must pay a minimum share of the infrastructure costs they cause (transmission upgrades, generation capacity...
Carolina Journal ↗
PJMFERCVirginiaNorth CarolinaAir permitRatepayer protectionFERC action
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing of two related deadlines. ERCOT (the Texas grid operator) has historically used a process called the Large Load Interconnection Study, or LLIS, to evaluate new electrical loads above 75 MW. A developer building a new hyperscale data...
ZeroEmissionGrid (Batch Zero Readiness 06-11-26) / EPE Consulting / Foley & Lardner / Keentel Engineering ↗
ERCOTTexasVirginiaAir permitInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. A 'backup generator' at a hyperscale data center is a diesel or natural-gas engine that turns on if utility power fails. A typical 100 MW hyperscale campus has 40-80 of them. Historically, these were treated as 'emergency' generators —...
Virginia DEQ Guidance Memo APG-578 / HB 507 / Data Center Knowledge / Hunton Andrews Kurth / DediRock ↗
ERCOTEPATexasVirginiaAir permitInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. The Clean Air Act's New Source Review (NSR) program requires that a 'major source' of air pollution obtain a pre-construction permit before construction begins. The phrase 'begin actual construction' has been interpreted (since the 1980...
EPA proposed rule / Gibson Dunn / Butler Snow / Inside Climate News / Troutman Pepper Locke ↗
ERCOTPJMEPAOhioAir permitInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. 'Behind the meter' (BTM) means generation that sits on the customer's side of the utility meter and never injects power into the grid. It bypasses every interconnection-queue rule, every capacity-market rule, every transmission-cost...
DCD / Power Magazine / Power Engineering ↗
ERCOTPJMFERCEPAMoratoriumAir permitInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. A 'memorandum of understanding' (MOU) in utility-customer land is a non-binding framework agreement — it commits both sides to negotiate in good faith but does not lock in tariffs, contract terms, or capacity allocations. Avista's MOU...
Spokesman-Review (June 3 + June 9 stories) / KXLY ↗
MoratoriumAir permit
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. The Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) is the state body that issues construction certificates for large generation and transmission projects in Ohio (similar role to a state public utility commission's siting arm). It is separate from...
Data Center Dynamics / Ohio Power Siting Board ↗
OhioAir permitInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing: under the Clean Air Act, a 'major source' of air pollution (which any data center with significant backup-generator capacity is) cannot start physical construction until its air permit is issued. The permit specifies what control...
Virginia DEQ / Bloomberg Law / E&E News / Data Center Knowledge ↗
FERCEPAVirginiaAir permitInterconnection
Read why it matters →Microsoft's 2030 climate commitments include three distinct goals: (a) carbon-negative by 2030, (b) water-positive by 2030, and (c) 100% renewable matching for all electricity consumption on a 24/7 basis (the 'hourly matching' goal). Annual 100% renewable...
Bloomberg / TechCrunch / Seeking Alpha / Reuters / Yahoo Finance ↗
TexasWisconsinAir permitBehind-the-meterHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Virginia Department of Environmental Quality's APG-576 (Diesel Engine-Generator Set Procedure for Writing New and Modified Permits) became effective April 9, 2026, with the new BACT (Best Available Control Technology) requirements applicable to air permit...
Virginia DEQ / Trinity Consultants ↗
EPATexasVirginiaAir permitInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →PJM Inside Lines and Utility Dive both confirmed April 29 that 811 new generation projects representing 220 GW of nameplate capacity have entered PJM's first interconnection cycle since the queue was paused for reform in 2022. Mix by fuel: gas-fired 106 GW...
Utility Dive ↗
PJMFERCAir permitInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Fleet Data Centers filed applications with Nevada state energy regulators April 20 to construct more than 350 MW of behind-the-meter natural gas and diesel power for two data center campuses at Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) in Storey County, NV. South...
Carson Now ↗
ERCOTTexasUtahKansasMoratoriumAir permitInterconnection
Read why it matters →Denver City Council scheduled a second reading and public hearing on the proposed data center moratorium for May 18 with an anticipated effective date of May 21 if it passes. The pause would block all new zoning permits and site development plans for data...
9News Denver ↗
ColoradoMoratoriumAir permit
Read why it matters →Joule Capital Partners, Caterpillar, and Wheeler Machinery (the Cat dealer for Utah/Idaho/Nevada/Wyoming/Montana) announced an agreement to power Joule's 'super-compute-ready' campus in Millard County, UT — 4,000 acres, gigawatt-scale operational launch in...
Caterpillar press release ↗
UtahMoratoriumAir permitInterconnection
Read why it matters →The Virginia legislature on Apr 29 rejected all three of Governor Spanberger's substantive amendments to HB 1393 (Bolling) / SB 253: (1) striking the explicit cost-shift mechanism that assigns capacity + distribution infrastructure costs to high-load...
Inside Climate News ↗
VirginiaAir permitHyperscaler
Read why it matters →NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) gained over 10% Apr 30 on Amazon's announcement of three new SMR-backing deals, including a $500M investment in X-energy. The broader nuclear sector rallied; Amazon's structuring is similar to its prior June 2025 MOU with Dominion...
CoinCentral ↗
PJMVirginiaAir permitInterconnectionHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Virginia DEQ's revised guidance APG-576 ('Diesel Engine-Generator Set Procedure for Writing New and Modified Permits') became effective April 9, 2026. New sections set presumptive BACT for both emergency and non-emergency gen-sets at data center stationary...
Hunton The Nickel Report ↗
VirginiaAir permitBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Apr 20 announcement: both top execs stepped down (Neugebauer remains on Board, Everson resigned from CFO role, both retained as observers). Interim Office of the CEO co-led by COO Jacobo Ortiz Blanes and board observer Anna Bofa; Heidrick & Struggles...
Fortune ↗
PJMTexasAir permitBehind-the-meterHyperscaler
Read why it matters →LandGate published a 'definitive' BTM whitepaper and shipped a Battery Storage Analysis tool. Ships in the same window as their Topos acquisition (Dec 2025) and Enterprise AI Data Agent (Feb 2026). The 2026-04-27 strategy/landgate.md sweep is now slightly...
PR Newswire ↗
Air permitBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →